IC 2944 Running Chicken Nebula (DR350)

IC 2944, Running Chicken Nebula,This image is of the large nebula which is in the shape of a running chicken (sort of). It is a gaseous emission nebula where star formation takes place. Cataloged as IC 2944, the nebula spans about 100 light years and lies about 6,000 light years away toward the constellation of the Centaur(Centaurus). The star cluster Collinder 249 is visible embedded in the central blue green area of the nebula’s glowing gas.Ultraviolet radiation from this cluster is exciting the gas in the nebula to re emit light. The image is in false color in the Hubble palette where green comes from Hydrogen gas emission, red from Sulfur emission and blue from Oxygen emission.  In this area dark shapes can be seen called Bok globules which typically are areas of star formation. The central area is surrounded by a darker horseshoe shaped cloud which has several dark cone shaped structures that are also areas of star formation. The orange color here comes from a combination of Sulfur and Hydrogen emission and the blue green color of the central area comes from a bination of Hydrogen and Oxygen emission. The image is a mosaic of two images that were taken with the Planewave DR350 at a focal length of 1050mm and part of the detail in the upper part of the image was enhanced from an  image taken with the Planewave CDK17 telescope at 2939mm.The overall image consists of 200 images taken over 16 hours.