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Object data: Located some 24 degrees to the south-east of Orion, and 8 degrees north-east of Sirius, the Seagull Nebula (IC 2177, NGC 2177) is spectacular object in the deep south of the winter Milky Way. More than 2.5 degrees from wing to wing, it is an extensive area of star clustering, star formation, and glowing ionized gas fuelled by the hottest stars in the wings and in the head. Various parts of the nebulous complex have their own catalogue designations: NGC 2327 refers to the head, NGC 2343 to the open star cluster in the body, NGC 2235 to the open star cluster in the north wing, whereas IC 2177 refers to the general complex. The outlying reflection nebulae to the west of the lower wing are designated Sh 2-293 and Sh2-295 and Sh 2-297 refers to the bright nebulous area at tip of the southern wing. The distance is estimated to be 3750 light-years.
Date: 07/11/08, 18/02/09
Location: Southern France
Optics: Takahashi FSQ-106ED working at f/5
Mount: AP 900 GTO on Portable Pier
Camera: SBIG STL-11K, SBIG LRGBC filter set, -30°C
Guiding: Integral STL-11K autoguider
Exposure: LRGB Seq: 13x 10 minutes; 3x 10 : 6.5 : 10 minutes (binned 2x2).Processing: Image acquisition and initial processing was done using Maxim DL, subsequent processing was done using RegiStar and Photoshop.
Notes: I obtained 10 luminance images in November 2008 but had to wait until my next trip to southern France in February 2009 to complete the set - this region is too low in the south to be imaged with any quality from the UK.
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