RCW 75

RCW 75

Elephant Trunk and Open Cluster Stock 16

Constellation: Centaurus
Ra: 13hr 20m 24s
Dec: -62d 33m 42s
Distance: 6200 light years
Image Size: 35' x 35'
North: Up; East Left

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Description

RCW 75 (Gum 48a) is an HII emission region in the constellation of Centaurus about 6200 light years away. The dark horizontal “cloud” is often referred to as the “Elephant Trunk”.  Above and to the right of the trunk is Stock 16, a very young Galactic open cluster that is thought to be the ionization source of the emission nebula.  The bluish reflection nebula at the end of the “Trunk” comes from light reflected off star LSS 3027 which is the upper of the two bright stars in the nebula that was described by Chu (Astron. Soc. Pacfic, 95, 873-875, 1983).  This image consists of 8 hours RGB data.  It is a complex and beautiful region.

Exposure: 8 hrs RGB
Telescope: PlaneWave CDK20 0.5m f/6.8
Mount: PlaneWave Ascension200h
Oag: Astrodon MonsterMOAG
Acquisition: ACP8-Expert
Calibration: CCDStack
Observatory Site: iTelescope.net, Siding Spring, NSW, Australia
Camera: SBIG STX16803
Filters: Astrodon Gen 2 RGB, 5 nm H-a
Guider: SBIG ST-i
Camera Operation: MaximDL5.23
Processing: Photoshop CC 2015
Image Date: 03/05/2016 - 03/07/2016

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