GUM 15 (RCW 32), Emission Nebula

GUM 15 (RCW 32) is an emission nebula and star formation region. It is part of the Vela Nebula. The bright blue (double) star just to the left of center below the dark dust lane is HD 74804. The star is casting a blue reflection off of the nearby dust clouds. HD 74804 along with other neighboring bright stars are exciting the hydrogen gas in the nebula causing it to glow red, an HII region. (Adam Block studios, ESO)

Gum 15 is essentially a southern hemisphere object. In the Northern hemisphere it only gets about 11 degrees above the horizon.

Image processed by Andrew Macica, original data from Telescope Live.

Imaging Details:

Observatory: Rio Hurtado Valley, Chile

Telescope: Planewave CDK24

Aperture: 610 mm (24 inches), f/6.5

Focal Length: 3962 mm

Camera: FLI PL 9000 CCD

Filters: LRGB

Total Exposure: 18 hours 0 min.

Image Processing: PixInsight 1.8.9-3 Ripley (x64);

BlurXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, StarXTerminator (RC Astro);

Adobe Photoshop 25.12.1;

Adobe Lightroom Classic 14.2

Instruction on PixInsight from Adam Block Studios.