Gum 51
Gum 51 is a emission nebula in the constellation Norma.
Gum 51 (RCW 105) is a star formation region consisting of two groups of stars together with stars on bright filaments. These stars include IR stars and stars with dust envelopes. This star formation region is embedded in a radial system of type-I dark globules that is formed by the star HD 144969.
Gum 51 is surrounded by numerous small molecular clouds and is likely embedded in the compact OB association R105. An estimated distance for the R105 association is about 1580 parsecs and its age is 12.8 million years. 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)
This image captures Gum 51 through a Hydrogen Alpha filter.
Technical Details
- Object: Gum 51
- Other Names: RCW 105
- Object Type: emission nebula
- Object Data: Angular Size = ~100x100 arc-minutes
- Object Position (Equinox 2000): 16h 10m, -49° 08´, Constellation = Norma
- Date: 2021 Apr 24-26 (3 nights)
- Location: Chile Remote Observatory, Observatorio El Sauce, Chile
- Partnership: Operated in partnership with David Churchill
- Telescope: Planewave CDK-17 (with Focal Reducer: f/4.5; FL = 1945mm)
- Camera: QHY 16200A with Integral 7-position Filter Wheel
- Mount: Astro-Physics 1600GTO
- Guider: Agena Starguide II / SBIG STi
- Sub-Exposures: Astronomik Filters
- H-Alpha (5nm): 92 x 10 min = 920 min - Total Exposure: 15h 20m
- File Name: Gum51-CDK21Ha-C01w.jpg
- Field of View: 38.9' x 58.3' at 0.64 arc-sec/pixel
- Original Image Size: 3630 x 4540 pixels (16.5 MP); 12.1" x 15.1" @ 300 dpi
- Data Acquisition: David Churchill
- Image Processing: Fred Espenak
- Maxim DL: Image Calibration, Stacking, Log Stretch
- Adobe Camera Raw: Noise Reduction
- Photoshop CC: Curves, Levels
- Topaz Labs: Sharpen AI - Copyright: Fred Espenak