NGC 2944 -48 - RUNNING CHICKEN NEBULA

CLUSTER ASSOCIATED WITH NEBULOSITY IN CENTAURUS

 (ra: 11.36,6/ dec -63:02)

March 2009, Mercedes Buenos Aires, Argentina

DATA

TYPE: Cluster associated with Nebulosity

Apparent Magnitude: 4.5 (IC 2944)

Apparent Diameter: 35 arc minutes (IC 2944)

DISTANCE: 7000 lights years

IMAGE INFORMATION

SCOPE: Celestron C8 SCT working at f6 (roughly)

CAMERA: SXVF H9

GUIDING: William Optics Zenithstar 66 with WO 0.8 x fr/ff

IMAGE ACQUISITION: AstroArt 3.0 - Control Interface 3.72 plug in

FILTERS: Astronomik Type II - Astronomik Ha 6 nm - Atik Filter Wheel

SKY CONDITIONS: rural skies - transparency and seeing regular

EXPOSURES: LHa (20,40)

PROCESSING: Maxim SD Mask, Images Plus CCD Sharp, Photoshop CS2. Multilayer Deconvolution Technique by Ken Crawford

OBJECT DESCRIPTION AND IMAGE SESSION

This Nebula lies between the Southern Cross and Eta Carina. A region of emission clouds that looks quite uniform. A very active and rich zone of star forming region. The open cluster in the upper left side is IC 2944 and the associated nebulosity is IC 2948. It shows very young stars at about 5900 light years from my backyard

The black spots also in the upper left side of the image are intriguing objects . They were discovered by south African astronomer A.D.Thackeray. The larger has a diameter of 1 light year and it mass is equivalent to 15 times our Sun. This type of black spots are also known as Bok Globules

(after the astronomer who first discovered) and they are present in many objects like The Lagoon Nebula. There are not much information about them but they are present in star forming regions (*)

This image was taken in Mercedes Observatory backyard in rural skies. Session was interrupted because clouds coming from the north.

(*) Source Seds