This heavenly red lotus in the Milky Way is the Great Carina Nebula. The nebula gets its red and purple hues from hot hydrogen gas. It sits about 7,500 light-years away in the constellation of the same name. It is also home to one of the brightest stars in the Milky Way galaxy, Eta Carinae. Although Carina Nebula is some four times as large and even brighter than the famous Orion Nebula, it is much less well known, due to its location far in the Southern sky. On the right side of the view a young open cluster of blue stars appears, which is known as the Southern Pleiades or IC 2602.