IC2177 – Seagull Nebula

About This Image

Just the “head” and one “wing” of the cosmic Seagul (a little more than half of the whole nebula), as it appears to be “dive-bombing”. I originally captured this target a couple years ago, when I first started out, and realized it was time to revisit it - and try to do better! The first time, I used a different scope, and had the entire nebula in the frame - but this time I chose to use the Hyperstar, with a slightly longer focal-length (so a smaller field of view) and just try to get just a section of it. Located between the constellations of Monoceros and Canis Major, the Nebula is about 3650 lightyears from us and is about 100 lightyears across (the whole nebula) - so the section in this image is some 60 to 70 lightyears across, I am guessing (and realize: the diameter of our entire solar system - the orbits of the outer planets, out to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt - is barely 3/1000 of a lightyear in diameter ..!) An interesting detail in the image: the bow-shock wave, near the star in the middle. The star is FN Canis Majoris, and is classified as a “runaway star”, as it is moving at high speed away from its birthplace, and plowing thru the dust - creating literally a bow shock, much like a boat does in the water. And that star is interesting: most stars in the sky that we can see with our eyes are only a few hundred lightyears away - but that star is some 3000 lightyears away - but is so big and bright, it makes up for the distance. It is calculated to be between 19 to 36 times the mass of the sun, and also to be 120,000 and 690,000 times brighter than the sun - ! - as well as 5 to 6 times hotter, re the surface temp.