Neighbourhood of SN 1987A

Image of the neighbourhood of supernova SN 1987A, taken with the NTT, in the light of ionised nitrogen, during very good seeing. The colour coding shows the intensity contours in the image. SN 1987A was detected in the Large Magellanic Cloud in February 1987 and was the first naked-eye supernova in nearly four centuries. ESO telescopes have been observing SN 1987A for more than twenty years.

More information in ESO Messenger 59, p16: http://www.eso.org/sci/publications/messenger/archive/no.59-mar90/messenger-no59.pdf