This wonderful object, nicknamed the Seagull Nebula, is an emission and reflection nebulae complex located 3600 light years away on the borders of the constellations Monoceros and Canis Major at a declination of -11 degrees. As most of you know, I am not a fan of nicknames. But this object in its entirety has no common designation, although its various parts and pieces have many different designations. The size of this area required a 2 panel mosaic for this image.
The Seagull consists of many amazing objects - the beautiful Seagull head (Gum 1 / SH2-292), the Seagull wings (Gum2 / IC 2177), the large star cluster at the leading edge of the left wing (NGC 2335), the small cluster at the leading edge of the right wing (NGC 2327), the nebula at the tip of the right wing (Gum 3 / Sh2-297), the cluster at the left claw (NGC 2343), and the two areas of nebulosity at the top right (Sh2-293 and Sh2-295). Many of these objects are also vdB objects. The wings span a distance of about 200 light-years.
The brilliance of the nebula is accentuated by the dense Milky Way star field which surrounds it.
I also like the many small hidden gems which are seen in the full resolution view of this SHO palette image. These include the colorful Kohoutek 1-8 planetary nebula (just above and right of the seagull head), the blue arc of the vdB 95 reflection nebula (at the right claw), and the molecular cloud that is a YSO factory, looking like an alien spaceship taking off (at lower left, below NGC 2335).
A great write-up on this region is seen
here.
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