IC 2948

Located 7 degrees southeast of the famous Eta Carinae nebula, this bright nebula around lambda Centauri (the bright 3rd magnitude star near the center) is often overlooked, although it is a splendid object by itself. Embedded in the nebula lies the open cluster IC 2944. The smaller nebulae to the right are RCW 60 (=Gum 39, top) and RCW 61 (=Gum 41, bottom). This object is sometimes dubbed the "Running Chicken" nebula (where RCW 60 in the top right corner depicts the chicken's head and beak).

Instrument	:	Vixen R200SS 8" f/4 Newtonian with coma corrector
Mount	:	Vixen Super Polaris DX
Guiding	:	ST-4 autoguider
Film	:	Kodak PJ400
Date	:	21 Feb. 2002
		00:54 - 01:26 UTC
		01:42 - 02:08 UTC
		02:18 - 02:46 UTC
Site	:	Farm road near Garies, Northern Cape Province, South Africa
Image #	:	2002-03/02...04 (3 image stack)
Remarks	:	Clouds forced me to cut short exposures #2 and 3.