The primary objects here are 2 hydrogen emission nebulae located in the southern constellation of Vela at a declination of -41 degrees. They are the 14th and 15th entries in the
Gum catalog of southern hemisphere HII nebulae developed by Colin Gum in Australia and published in 1955.
The smaller nebula is Gum 15, 3000 light years away. The bright multiple star in the center of the nebula is HD 74804, the brightest star of the Collinder 197 cluster and the main star responsible for ionizing the nebula. I like the bright arc on the left side and the dark dust lane on the right side (and above).
The larger nebula is the faint Gum 14. Much larger than Gum 15, this nebula has many dust lanes and shaped dust clouds. This nebula is a bit further away than Gum 15, at 4000 light years away. It is 170 light years in diameter.
The other main object in the image, shown in the mouseover just right of image center, is NGC 2626, a beautiful reflection and emission nebula.
The 2 planetary nebula identified in the mouseover are small objects with little detail and are not worth finding on the full resolution view.
The Gum image below (click to expand), showing the relative positions of Gum 14 and 15, is an annotated overlay of a crop of a wonderful 2018 Astrobin IOTD by
@John Gleason :
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