Gum 15 in Vela. Intriguing dusty details in a surprisingly faint emission nebula.
Thirteen hours (7 hrs in 2018 with Aspen CG16M and 6 hrs last night with FLI 16803) on 20 inch PlaneWave CDK scope.
Big one here
Field of view approx 35 min arc, north on the left.
Feeling poetic. There is an unmistakeable burned and blackened gum tree, conjuring last year's bush fires. Toward the bottom, there is an impressive glowing shock front, echoing the bush fire front as seen from above at night.
Toward the left of the bright shock front is a second dust nebula, which with some imagination and goodwill contains elements of a bearded dancing satyr, with a large nose and a goatee, and very goat-like back legs.
Given that Colin Gum was an Australian astronomer, perhaps this is one for Australia Day.
We've seen colour versions with strong blue nebulosity. We did a 3x3 binned 5 minute test shot (equivalent to 45 mins unbinned), and confirmed that there is no detectable OIII there. So presumably the blue seen by others is reflection nebulosity, and this is a very early low-energy star-forming region, with not too much hard UV as yet.
As usual, all robotics, acquisition, and processing designed built written by us. Nothing bought in a restaurant.
...you have a warped eye Mike...but luckily... so do I 
