This narrowband image portrayed in the Hubble Palette (SHO) required three narrowband filters to create. The first filter, SII, was inserted into the red channel, Ha filtered light in the green channel, and OIII filtered light was used for the blue channel. Equal weightings applied. A small amount of RGB data added to enhance the star colours.

I found it interesting too how this version of “The Running Chicken Nebula” behaved compared to my earlier attempts with a Bi-Colour on the same object. Similar processing yielded very different results. With the addition of the SII channel, the stars had much less colouring and appeared almost white initially. The features and details within both versions are different, and the colouring on the SHO version is a little wilder as expected.

IC2944 is a well known circumpolar object in the southern hemisphere. It can be located in the constellation of Centaurus and has an apparent visual magnitude of 4.5. You will find it nestled between the Southern Cross and Carina area. It’s a large structure spanning around 75 arcmins. Other names include The Running Chicken Nebula, RCW 62, and G42.

A fascinating feature would have to be the very dark areas in the nebula. These are known as Bok globules, small dark nebula containing dense dust and gas. Usually found in H II regions, they are areas of partially ionized interstellar atomic hydrogen. These globules are now known as Thackeray’s Globules, named after the South African astronomer David Thackeray.

You may notice a slight brightening on the right side of the photo. This glow is the halo of Lambda Centauri, a very bright star about 420 light-years from Earth. With an apparent visual magnitude of +3.13, this halo intrudes into this right side of the image.

Instruments:

• 10 Inch RCOS fl 9.1

• Astro Physics AP-900 Mount

• SBIG STL 11000m

• FLI Filter Wheel

• Baader Planetarium H-alpha 7nm Narrowband-Filter

• Baader Planetarium OIII 8.5nm Narrowband-Filter

• Baader Planetarium SII 8.0nm Narrowband-Filter

• Astrodon Red, Green, Blue Filters

Exposure Details:

• SII 20 X 1200

• Ha 12 X 1200

• OIII 22 X 1200

• Red 3 X 900

• Green 2 X 900

• Blue 2 X 900



Total Time: 19.5 hours

Thanks for looking

Terry