Photo of the Week for March 22, 2019
As the old saying goes, birds of a feather flock together. And the night sky does seem to have quite a few birds in it. Of course we’re familiar with the constellations Cygnus the swan and Aquila the eagle, but there’s also a large number of avian nebulas. Among them are the Swan, Owl, Eagle and Pelican nebulas—and, though perhaps least well known, the Seagull Nebula.
The Seagull is perched on the border between Monoceros and Canis Major, and has two catalogue designations. The gull’s head is NGC2327, while the overall region counts as IC2177. To make matters slightly confusing, the NGC 2327 portion is sometimes also referred to as the Parrot (or, Parrot’s Head) Nebula.
This Seagull portrait was captured by ace astrophotographer Oleg Bouevitch of Nepean, Ontario. He used a Takahashi FSQ 106 EDX III astrographic telescope and a FLI ML16200 monochromatic CCD camera to acquire 13 hours exposure shot through H-alpha, OIII and SII filters.
