Gum 15

Emission Nebula, Vela

March 2023. Observatorio El Sauce, Chile

Gum 15 is a nebula from the Gum catalog, located in the constellation of Vela, about 3,000 light-years from Earth. It is shaped by aggressive winds flowing from the stars within and around it. The bright star in the center of the nebula is HD 74804, a double star. The Gum catalog is an astronomical catalog of 84 emission nebulae in the southern sky. It was made by the Australian astronomer Colin Stanley Gum (1924-1960) at Mount Stromlo Observatory using wide field photography. Gum published his findings in 1955 in a study entitled A study of diffuse southern H-alpha nebulae which presented a catalog of 84 nebulae or nebular complexes. Similar catalogs include the Sharpless catalog and the RCW catalog, and many of the Gum objects are repeated in these other catalogs. However, the RCW and Gum catalogs were mainly of the southern hemisphere (Mount Stromlo is in the southern hemisphere)

Telescope: Planewave CDK17 (FR) f4.5
Mount: Astro Physics 1600GTO
Camera: QHY16200A/ Integral FW
Guider: Agena Starguide II / ZWO ASI178MM
Filters: Astronomik 36mm LRGB

L: 48×10 mins = 480 mins, R: 24×10 mins = 240 mins, G: 24×10 mins = 240 mins, B: 24×10 mins = 240 mins

Total Imaging Time: 20h 00m

Data Imaged remotely over 6 nights during March 2023.
Imaged from Observatorio El Sauce, Chile, in partnership with Fred Espenak.
Data acquisition & Processing by David Churchill.