Description:
IC 2944, also known as the Lambda Centauri Nebula, is a stunning region of space located in the southern constellation of Centaurus. The region is famous for its striking appearance, earning the nickname "Running Chicken Nebula" due to the distinctive shape of its larger structure.In this image, small, dark molecular clouds called Thackeray's Globules can be seen towards the centre.
These "eggs" are rich in cosmic dust and have the potential to form new stars through gravitational condensation, but they are also being rapidly eroded by the intense radiation from nearby young stars, leaving their fate uncertain. The region also contains patchy glowing gas and complex areas of reflecting dust, all illuminated by the massive and energetic stars that form the open cluster Collinder 249.This stunning object spans about 60 light-years and is estimated to be located at a distance of 6,500 light-years from Earth.
Processing:
I have spent a long time on the luminance layer blending carefully all the details present in all 3 emissions layer. There are some interesting structural details present on the Sii image that can be easily overwhelmed by the Ha layer. This is one of those object that works really well in SHO with minimal tweaks required to get a pleasing colour palette. I personally really like the starless version of this image.
Another thing worth mentioning is that I have drizzled my integration so I was working on image double the normal size... the reason was not to compensate with under sampling (which I'm not), but I wanted to see I could resolve finer details during processing... and indeed this really helped BXT a lot, despite making each step in processing taking double the processing power and time it is worth doing I believe.
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