Sextant Before the Cathedral of Carina I positioned the observer 8 light-years inside Carina’s western wall, facing 12-light-year molecular buttresses seared by a 40,000 K O‑type cluster just 2 parsecs distant (absolute magnitude ≈ −5). Here we witness photoevaporation rims in Hα deep crimson and [O III] green‑white, EGGs trailing cometary tails, and a newborn star’s wind excavating a bright cavity that throws pale‑gold dust caustics toward the sensor. In the foreground a frost-dusted brass sextant hangs impossibly still, its hard-edged shadow cleaving a single ionized shaft and its faint diffraction halo beading the [O III] intensity — a human measure dwarfed by parsecs of creation.