The Running Chicken Nebula (IC 2944)
Image by Martin_Heigan
The Running Chicken Nebula or the Lambda Centauri Nebula (IC 2944), is an open cluster with an associated emission nebula (between 6,000 – 6,500 light-years away) in the constellation Centaurus, close the star Lambda Centauri.
About Emission nebulae:
Emission nebulae are glowing clouds of interstellar gas which have been excited by some nearby energy source, usually a very hot star. The red light seen in this picture is glowing hydrogen captured in the Hydrogen-Alpha (Hα) Infrared wavelength of light at 656nm.
About this image:
Photographed from the Southern Hemisphere, the "chicken" is upside down, if there is such a thing as the right way up in the Universe… Luckily it still looks like a chicken this way round too.
2 minute ISO 3200 exposures, imaged in the rural dark skies of the Waterberg, Limpopo Province, South Africa.
About the Star Colors:
You will notice that star colors differ from red, orange and yellow, to blue. This is an indication of the temperature of the star’s Nuclear Fusion process. This is determined by the size and mass of the star, and the stage of its life cycle. In short, the blue stars are hotter, and the red ones are cooler.
Gear:
GSO 6" f/4 Imaging Newtonian Reflector Telescope.
Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector.
Astronomik CLS Light Pollution Filter.
Orion StarShoot Autoguider.
Celestron AVX Mount.
QHYCCD PoleMaster.
Celestron StarSense.
Canon 60Da DSLR.
Tech:
Guiding in Open PHD 2.6.1.
Image acquisition in Sequence Generator Pro.
Lights/Subs: 15 x 120 sec. ISO 3200 CFA FIT Files.
Calibration Frames:
30 x Bias
30 x Darks
Pre-Processing and Linear workflow in PixInsight,
and finished in Photoshop.
Astrometry Info:
nova.astrometry.net/user_images/1160326#annotated
RA, Dec center: (174.387810483, -63.4866603694) degrees
Orientation: 1.1213611811 deg E of N
Pixel scale: 6.21617787776 arcsec/pixel
Martin
–
[Home Page] [Photography Showcase] [My Free Photo App]
[Flickr Profile] [Facebook] [Twitter] [My Science & Physics Page]
This Limpopo South Africa image was automatically curated and published with WP Robot plugin – CLICK HERE to learn more about WP Robot for WordPress – a massive time and money saver.
Visit the MyPE YouTube Channel.
