RCW 27 is a emission nebula covering a large area of about 2 degrees which combines many type of objects. Emission dark and reflections nebulas open clusters and planetaries nebulas as well. It is located in the north western side of the Constellation of Vela near its limit with Puppis. One of the major contributor of its ionization is HD 73882 an O type star. Also in the image RU 64 is an open cluster of about 65 arc minutes of relative size. The bright bluish star in the center is HD 74067 vmg 5.2 and it has a 9.08 mg companion at 5 arc seconds. At the top left we have NGC 2626 a handsome reflection nebula. At the top right we also PK 259+ 0.1 a bright Planetary Nebula with 1.1 arc minutes.

 

The RCW catalogue was published in 1960 by Alex Rodgers, Colin Campbell and John Whiteoak under the direction of Bart Bok. It contains 180 objects many of them HII regions which are also referenced by their Gum objects.

 

For some reason this are is not so popular among astro photographers but we hope this will change soon...