2012 March 03 at 08:00

Star forming region NGC 2467 in Puppis

NGC 2467 is a H-II region located some 13,000 light years from Earth. It is dominated by one early-type star, HD 64315 (9.2V, O6 Vn spectral type), which is the brightest star in the centre of the bluish nebula in the accompanying photo.

The prominent, yellow, arc below HD 64315 is a part of the main ionization front. Several other ionization fronts exist in the nebula, beginning about 13 light years away from the stars that ionize them.

NGC 2467 is a site of active star formation. A recent study found 45 young stellar objects (YSOs) in the region, located in or near the ionization fronts, suggesting that star formation in ongoing, triggered by the expansion of the H-II region created by the massive, energetic, OB stars in the area.

The image above was acquired in February 2012 by Dale Liebenberg of Port Elizabeth, South Africa. It was the "first light" image for Dale's new FLI Microline 11002 camera. It was shot through a Celestron EdgeHD 14-inch on an ASA DDM60 mount.

"I had previously tried this object," Dale writes, "but with a lot of faint detail, I could not get a good enough result with my old camera (same sensor). So, I thought this would be a good test for the ML. Now with the low noise camera operating at -30deg, the results are much better."

The image is a combination of ten 20-minute frames each in H-alpha, O-III and S-II. "I probably overdid the stretching, but I wanted to push the noise envelope," Dale writes, adding "I started off with Hubble palette, but modified with Bob Franke's gold-turquoise motif."

NGC 2467, imaged by Dale Liebenberg