The Seagull Nebula is a collection of emission and reflection nebula that resemble a bird with its wings spread. Located in the Milky Way to the west of the constellation Orion, the nebula shares this region of sky with two other impressive nebulas, Rosette and Orion.
Designated IC 2177, it also contains several NGC objects – the open star clusters 2335 (shoulder) and 2343 (body) along with reflection nebula 2327 that forms the head. Located 3,650 light years from Earth, the nebula spans 240 light years.
Date of capture: 3 and 4 March 2021
Telescope: Explore Scientific ED80 APO Triplet Refractor with a Televue TRF-2008 reducer/flattener
Focal length: 384mm
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro AZ/EQ-G
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC Pro
Filter: Optolong L-Extreme
Exposure: 3 hours 34 minutes (180 seconds x 18, 300 seconds x 32)
Capture software: Astro Photography Tool
Processing software: DeepSkyStacker and Photoshop (plugins: ProDigital Software Astronomy Tools, Topaz DeNoise AI)