Carina Highlights: The area of the southern sky west of the Southern Cross is in richness of nebulae and highlight objects something very special. The wide field image displays this extraordinary skyscape with it´s plentitude of emission and dark nebulae as well as Open Clusters.

At the lower left corner you find Running Chicken Nebula (IC 2944), then upward right two galactic nebulae NGC 3676 and 3603, and close to the center Eta Carinae Nebula (NGC 3372), the prime highlight of the southern skies.

Five splendid Open Clusters are also featured in the image: On top of Running chicken is NGC 3766, close to the top NGC 3532 and up right from  Eta Carinae NGC 3293. At the lower edge of the image are the Southern Pleiades (IC 2602)  and close to the right edge is brilliant NGC 3114.
In the right upper corner two faint emission nebula can be detected: Westerlund Nebula (NGC 3247) to the left and Carina`s Smile (NGC 3199) to the right.

Please also have a look at the High-Res version to see more full details.