Famously known as the Running Chicken, the IC 2944 Nebula shines bright in the Southern sky. Sometimes called the Lambda Centauri Nebula, it is an open star cluster with an associated emission nebula. Located 6000 light-years away from our earth, it can be found in the constellation of Centauri.
It was named the Running Chicken Nebula due to the resemblance of a “running chicken” by someone with a big imagination. When photographed using a wider field of view it is almost possible to see where the nebula chicken got its name.
The nebula stretches around 100 light-years across and consists of small patches of Dark Nebulae. The dark nebulae are called Bok Globules, and are also known as Thackeray’s Globules named after their discoverer David Thackerey. These are very dense small clouds of gas and dust that can block the light behind it.
Bok Globules are often star-forming regions and the reddish glow that can be seen in the image is a typical emission nebula created by the high UV radiation from the surrounding newborn stars.
This photo was shot using a remote access 24-inch mirrored telescope in Chile. This telescope has a focal length of nearly 4 meters. It has a narrower field of view and is used mostly for farther and smaller objects in the night sky. Three different filters and a monochrome CCD sensor/camera were used to create SHO also known as the Hubble Palette image. These filters capture different wavelengths of light from emissions from different elements. While H stands for Hydrogen, S for Sulfur, and O for Oxygen. With these 3 different filters, the object is shot and every individual filter data is calibrated and stacked and 3 master mono images are created. These three mono master files are assigned to Red Green and Blue channels to create an RGB aka color image.
Once there was the RGB color image, a rigorous post-process starts where lots of scientific and artistic steps were taken to have the finished image. Observing the Runnin Chicken makes one wonder: do the eggs from this huge celestial chicken form some stars?
Equipment & Exif
Planewave CDK24 Telescope
Aperture: 610 mm (24 inches)
Focal Length: 3962 mm
F-ratio: 6.5
Mount: Mathis MI-1000/1250 with absolute encoders
Camera: FLI PL 9000
Filters(50mm square): SII (3nm), Ha (3nm), OIII (3nm)
Off-Axis guider: Astrodon MonsterMOAG
Guiding camera: Starlight Xpress Ultrastar
Observatory name: El Sauce Observatory
Location: Río Hurtado, Coquimbo Region, Chile
Total 3 Hours 30 minutes Integration
SII 14 x 300 seconds
Ha 14 x 300 seconds
OIII 14 x 300 seconds
