CG4: A Ruptured Cometary Globule Can a gas cloud grab a galaxy? It's not even close. The "claw" of this odd looking "creature" in the above photo is a gas cloud known as a cometary globule. This globule, however, has ruptured. Cometary globules are typically characterized by dusty heads and elongated tails. These features cause cometary globules to have visual similarities to comets, but in reality they are very much different. Globules are frequently the birthplaces of stars, and many show very young stars in their heads. The reason for the rupture in the head of this object is not completely known. The galaxy above the globule is huge, very far in the distance, and only placed near CG4 by chance superposition (text adapted from APOD).Click here for a closeup of the globule taken at longer focal lenght Mouse over the image to display all resolutions available. Click "share" button on top to get direct links to download the images up to XXXL size. Click "buy" button to purchase high quality prints of this imge Apo TEC140 (140/f7.2) - FLI Proline 16803 -Ha (410m) L (230m) R (75m) G (75m) B (80m) - Warrumbungle Observatory, Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia - glittering lights

light from far far away..

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The Chamaeleon I Cloud

Home to some of the nearest molecular clouds, the constellation of Chamaeleon is filled with many dark nebula complexes. The Chamaeleon I complex is one of three large clouds found in this southern constellation and has an age of 2 million years. The distances of the three main clouds range from 520-580 light years and are also isolated from other major star forming complexes. The Chamaeleon I complex is a site of low mass star formation, which is characterised visually by various reflection nebulae including IC 2631 to the north and the blue nebula Ced 111 and the white reflection nebula Ced 110 to the south. The great obscuring mass of thick brown dust in the region absorbs the blue light of distant stars making them appear much redder than they actually are. This process of interstellar reddening also affects the light of distant galaxies in the line of sight, making them look less blue. Despite the copious amounts of dust, the Chamaeleon I complex is regarded by astronomers to impose only a moderate level of extinction on the background starfield in comparison with other dark nebulae. The Chamaeleon I complex is near the south celestial pole and is situated at the edge of the Scorpius-Centaurus OB association. The cloud is illuminated by massive stars that belong to a subgroup of this OB association. Due to its proximity, the Chamaeleon I complex has been subjected to many searches for young stellar objects by many astronomers including Karl Henize in 1963. Recent surveys in the past two decades have also yielded a large sample of YSO's, including the first X-ray emitting brown dwarf, which was discovered in 1998. Young stellar objects have also been discovered in various infrared surveys of the clouds. The cluster of sources associated with the complex is split into two northern and southern subclusters and the cloud contains 200 known low mass YSO's. Analysis of data predicts that star formation began 3-4 million years ago in the northern half of the cloud and 5-6 million years ago in the southern half. Star formation in the cloud is still ensuing at a declining rate until eventually it will completely cease. Other optically visible signs of star formation in the cloud are represented by small Herbig Haro objects and outflows. The first Herbig Haro objects to be discovered in this complex were found in a survey for Herbig Haro objects in dark clouds by Richard Schwartz in 1977. They include HH 48-9 and HH 50. Due to its tiny size, HH 48 isn't visible in this widefield image but the bright Herbig Haro objects HH 49 and HH 50 are prominently visible in the region between Ced 110 and Ced 111. HH 49/50 are associated with the largest outflow in this complex, a giant outflow with a length of 27 arcminutes (or 6.5 light years) and its source is the protostar Cha-MMS1. Spitzer infrared images of HH 49/50 reveal infrared emission associated with them. This infrared nebula has an incredible shape of a "tornado" formed by a pair of twisting helical filaments. Deep imaging surveys in the past decade have found a total of 30 Herbig Haro objects associated with 20 separate outflows. Also visible in the image is a unique curiosity, a colourful orange nebula below the reflection nebula Ced 111. This is the Chamaeleon Infrared Nebula, a bipolar infrared reflection nebula that also happens to be visible optically. Its bipolar nature is only visible in infrared images as well as its illuminating source. Studies of the nebula have shown it to exhibit a complex geometry consisting of a disk surrounding the central source as well as bipolar lobes tracing two cavities cleared out by ouflow activity. Infrared images reveal the two bipolar lobes to be separated by a dark structure, which is a circumstellar disk around the central source (description provided by Sakib Rasool)

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The Eta Carinae Nebula (NGC 3372)

A jewel of the southern sky, the Great Carina Nebula, also known as NGC 3372, spans over 300 light-years, one of our galaxy's largest star forming regions. Like the smaller, more northerly Great Orion Nebula, the Carina Nebula is easily visible to the unaided eye, though at a distance of 7,500 light-years it is some 5 times farther away. This gorgeous telescopic portrait reveals remarkable details of the region's glowing filaments of interstellar gas and obscuring cosmic dust clouds. Wider than the Full Moon in angular size, the field of view stretches nearly 100 light-years across the nebula. The Carina Nebula is home to young, extremely massive stars, including the still enigmatic variable Eta Carinae, a star with well over 100 times the mass of the Sun. Eta Carinae is the brightest star at the left, near the dusty Keyhole Nebula. While Eta Carinae itself maybe on the verge of a supernova explosion, X-ray images indicate that the Great Carina Nebula has been a veritable supernova factory (text adapted from APOD).
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M49 and the "Lost Galaxies"

Many galaxies are visible in the field of view of this cosmic vista and three are particular noteworthy. M49, at right in the image above, was the first member of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies to be discovered by Charles Messier in 1771. With a magnitude of 8.3 and located about 50 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo, M49 is supposed to have a supermassive black hole in its nucleus with an estimated mass 565 million times the mass of the Sun. This galaxy has a large collection of globular clusters, estimated at about 5,900. Barely visible around M49 is a faint extended, interleaved shell system reminiscent of the radial accretion of a satellite companion, discovered only in 2010.
NGC4526, at left in the image above, is a lenticular galaxy with a magnitude of 9.6, located in between two relatively bright stars that makes it an easy target to be spotted visually. NGC 4535 is the bright spiral galaxy above NGC 4526. It was discovered in 1785 by William Herschel that described it as an easy object and at 9.8 has a similar magnitude of the latter. Due to the relative brightness and close location to M49, it is surprising how Messier missed these two galaxies, hence the nicknames of "lost galaxies".
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Henize2-111 and Alpha Centauri

Blazing brightly in the southern sky, the supergiant binary Alpha Centauri is the host of an expansive starscape sprinkled with numerous deep sky objects in this telescopic view. The most visually striking of its retinue of glittering jewels is the exotic and unique planetary nebula Hen 2-111, which is one of 468 planetary nebulae that were catalogued by Karl Henize in 1967. The main central part of Hen 2-111 is a bright peanut shaped core that measures only 29 x 15 arcseconds. However, its most visually striking aspect is a faint giant ionized halo that spans 10 x 5 arcminutes! This extreme structure was discovered by B. Louise Webster in 1978 in deep photographic plates taken with the (at the time) Anglo-Australian Observatory. At an estimated distance of 7800 light years, the entire nebula spans approximately 23 light years! The halo is actually a rare bipolar outflow and the other notable planetary nebula known to exhibit this unique feature is the northern hemisphere nebula KjPn 8 in Cassiopeia. Hen 2-111 exhibits some of the highest radial velocities detected in a planetary nebula to date! The radial velocities of the outer lobes are 370 kms, which is indicative of the high speed of the material ejected. Bipolar outflows with even greater velocities have been observed in a few other planetary nebulae. Almost perfectly symmetrical, the geometric regularity of the outflow is due to the ionized gas flowing outwards along the walls of two bi-conical structures. The twisted appearance is caused by the axis of the structures being viewed at an angle of 45 degrees from our line of sight. The most likely explanation for the origin of the outer lobes is an eruptive event of the central star within a circumstellar disk. To the right of Hen 2-111 is the attractive pairing of the open clusters NGC 5617 and Pismis 19. NGC 5617 is the larger and younger of the two and despite its apparent youthful appearance, it is actually an intermediate age cluster with an estimated age of 80 million years. Contrastingly, the smaller rich condensed cluster Pismis 19 appears much older than NGC 5617 and indeed its golden ancient light betrays its great age of 800 million years! It is at a similar distance to Hen 2-111 of about 7800 light years whereas NGC 5617 is much nearer at 5000 light years. However, it is subject to severe reddening due to interstellar dust between us and the cluster and would shine more brightly if this dust was less prevalent. Pismis 19 is one of 24 open clusters that were discovered by Paris Pismis in 1959 by analysing photographic plates taken at the Tonantzintla Observatory. Also barely visible in the glare of Alpha Centauri is a round broken roughly circular shell, which can be seen to the north of the halfway point between Alpha Centauri and Hen 2-111. This is the supernova remnant G315.4-0.3, which was discovered by Anne Green in 1974 and identified as a supernova remnant in 1975. However, its extremely dim optical shell was discovered recently in 2011 in a search for new supernova remnants in SuperCOSMOS Ha Survey (SHS) images by Milorad Stupar and Quentin Parker.
Thanks to Sakib Rasool for suggesting me this little known object and for preparing the above object description.
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The Smile Nebula (NGC 3199)

NGC 3199 lies about 12,000 light-years away, a glowing cosmic cloud in the southern constellation of Carina. The nebula is about 75 light-years across in this haunting, false-color view. Though the deep image reveals a more or less complete ring shape, it does look very lopsided with a much brighter edge at the lower right. Near the center of the ring is a Wolf-Rayet star, a massive, hot, short-lived star that generates an intense stellar wind. In fact, Wolf-Rayet stars are known to create nebulae with interesting shapes as their powerful winds sweep up surrounding interstellar material. In this case, the bright edge was thought to indicate a bow shock produced as the star plowed through a uniform medium, like a boat through water. But measurements have shown the star is not really moving directly toward the bright edge. So a more likely explanation is that the material surrounding the star is not uniform, but clumped and denser near the bright edge of windblown NGC 3199 (text adapted from APOD).
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The Wishing Well Cluster (NGC 3532)

NGC 3532, also known as the Wishing Well Cluster, is an open cluster in the constellation Carina and one of the Southern Sky's finest Jewels. It got the name because through a telescope's eyepiece it appears like dozens of silver coins twinkling at the bottom of a wishing well. NGC 3532 was discovered by Nicholas Louis de Lacaille on January 25, 1752 from South Africa, and cataloged as Lacaille II.7.

About 1,300 light years distant and consisting of approximately 150 stars of 7th magnitude & fainter, NCG 3532 was the first target ever observed by the Hubble Space Telescope on May 20, 1990. It lies between the Southern Cross constellation and larger but fainter “False Cross” asterism with X Carinae the nearest star right next to the cluster but not a member and Eta Carinae & its famous nebula not too far away along with a bunch of other nearby deep sky objects (text adapted from Wikipedia).
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The Statue of Liberty Nebula (NGC 3576)

An intriguing and beautiful nebula, NGC 3576 drifts through the Sagittarius arm of our spiral Milky Way Galaxy. Within the region, episodes of star formation are thought to contribute to the complex and suggestive shapes. Powerful winds from the nebula's embedded, young, massive stars shape the looping filaments. Hydrogen and oxygen, energized by intense ultraviolet radiation, contribute to the nebular glow. But the glow also silhouettes dense clouds of dust and gas. For example, the two condensing dark clouds near the center of the picture offer potential sites for the formation of new stars. NGC 3576 itself is about 100 light-years across and 9,000 light-years away in the southern constellation of Carina, not far on the sky from the famous Eta Carinae Nebula. At the left of the picture is NGC 3603, a much larger but more distant star forming region (text adapted from APOD).
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The Southern Pleiades (IC 2602)

The Southern Pleiades IC 2602 (aka the Theta Carinae Cluster or Caldwell 102) is an open cluster in the constellation Carina. It was discovered by Abbe Lacaille in 1751 from South Africa and can be seen with the naked eye. Theta Carinae, the brightest star within the open cluster, is a third-magnitude star with an apparent magnitude of +2.74. Like its northern counterpart in Taurus, the Southern Pleiades spans a sizeable area of sky, approximately 50 arcminutes, that at an estimate distance of 480 light-years makes its real size about 14 light years. The small cluster visible at the bottom of the image is Lorenzin-Melotte 101. At an estimated distance of 6,800 light years, it is 14 times more distant than IC 2602 and has a diameter of roughly 25 light years. So if the Southern Pleiades cluster were removed to the distance of Melotte 101 it would only look 60% as wide as the latter. The long Ha exposure added to the image reveals some faint nebulosity permeating the whole area, a feature very seldom imaged (text adapted from Wikipedia).
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vdBH80 Region

vdBH80 is a small reflection nebula in the centre of the bright rimmed globule SFO 85, which is embedded in the giant emission nebula RCW 113 in the constellation of Scorpius. Both nebulae are influenced by the intense radiation of the energetic and luminous open cluster NGC 6231, which can partly be seen in the top right corner. NGC 6231 is a young cluster with an estimated age of 3-5 million years and contains more than 100 massive stars, including 15 O-type stars. It forms the heart of the Scorpius OB1 association, which is responsible for influencing the gas and dust in the surrounding area. RCW 113 is a large curved HII region that was first noticed in photographic plates in 1955 by Colin Gum and is also catalogued as Gum 55. It was also independently found in the same year by the astronomers Bart Bok, Michiel Bester and Campbell Wade. Its source of ionisation are multiple supergiant stars in NGC 6231. vdBH80 is one of 136 southern reflection nebulae that were catalogued by Sidney van den Bergh and William Herbst in 1975. However, this nebula was noticed earlier in 1962 by the legendary astronomer Karl Henize. At the heart of this nebula is the Be type supergiant star V921 Scorpii, which is directly associated with the nebulosity. This association is confirmed by both the star and the reflection nebula sharing almost identical spectra. Be type stars are intermediate mass stars that are characterised by an association with circumstellar gas and dust. This phenomenon has been observed at all evolutionary stellar stages including pre and post main sequence. A new study of the star whose results were only published this year detected a companion to V921 Scorpii. This has helped confirm a hypothesis that the Be phenomenon is related to interactions in a binary system. The orbital period has been calculated to be 35 years based on earlier observations in 2008 and 2009. High resolution observations of the nebula have detected regularly interspersed substructures, which would imply episodic mass outflow with a period of 25 years, which also corresponds roughly with the orbital period of the companion. The mass loss episodes might have been triggered by the orbital passage of the companion in the system. Another finding of the observations is that the circumstellar disk around V921 Scorpii is aligned with the surrounding nebula along its polar axis. Between vdBH80 and the bottom left corner is a small round faint nebula. This is the planetary nebula HaTr 5 and is one of 14 planetary nebulae discovered on POSS plates in 1983 by H. Hartl and S.B. Tritton and interestingly this catalogue wasn't published until 1985. It is characterised by an elliptical ring with a well defined outer edge. To the north of vdBH80 is the inky black dark nebula SL 19, which blocks the light of stars and dust behind it. It is one of 42 southern dark nebulae that were catalogued by the Swedish astronomers A. Sandqvist and K.P. Lindroos in 1976.
Thanks to Sakib Rasool for suggesting me this little known object and for preparing the above object description.

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Stock 16 and RCW 75 Area

RCW 75, also known as Gum 48A, is a very active HII region fueled by the young star cluster Stock 16 and the OB association of Cent OB1. Numbers of faint stars found just within the eastern boundaries of RCW 75 are suggested to be low-mass pre-main-sequence stars formed from the interaction of the ionization/shock front from RCW 75 with the adjacent gas and dust complex. Stock 16 and RCW 75 otherwise constitute what appears to be a rather passive star-formation complex.

Colin Gum, working at Australia's Mount Stromlo observatory in 1951, completed the first major survey of HII regions visible in the southern hemisphere. He published his nebula catalog in 1955. Although Gum's catalog was largely superceded by the RCW catalog published in 1960 by Alex Rodgers, Colin Campbell and John Whiteoak under the direction of Bart Bok, many HII regions are still referenced by their Gum numbers even today (text adapted from Star Shadows Remote Observatory).

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PFP1 (Pierce, Frew & Parker) in Monoceros

PFP 1 is a large highly evolved planetary nebula that was discovered in 2004 by Quentin Parker, David Frew and Mark Pierce. It is one of the most well known objects discovered in the SuperCOSMOS H-alpha Survey (SHS) as part of the Macquarie/AAO/Strasbourg Ha Planetary Nebula Catalog (MASH) project. The SHS Ha Survey has been crucial in the discovery of extremely faint planetary nebulae and other types of objects that can only be detected with narrowband imagery due to their intense faintness. The MASH catalogue contains about 1200 planetary nebulae and along with other galactic Ha surveys, it has helped to double the number of known planetary nebulae to approximately 3000. PFP 1 is one of the largest planetary nebulae found with an apparent size of 19 arcminutes. It is characterised by a thin faint almost perfectly annular ring with a brighter limb to the north. This bright rim structure is faintly visible in POSS I and POSS II red plates and it is the result of the planetary nebula starting to interact with the ISM. This part is brighter than the rest of the nebula due to the material in the planetary nebula-ISM boundary being compressed, which leads to a brightness enhancement in the direction of motion of the planetary nebula. Few examples of planetary nebulae with ISM interaction are known due to their extremely low intrinsic brightness. Currently 100 are known and the southern SuperCOSMOS H-alpha Survey along with the INT/WFC Photometric Ha Survey of the Northern Galactic Plane (IPHAS) have been invaluable in the detection of more of these rare examples. This stage in the evolution of a planetary nebula precedes the total dilution and fading of a planetary nebula. However, the phenomenon of ISM interaction has been observed in young planetary nebulae with high speed central stars and studies conclude that different stages of interaction are exhibited throughout the life of planetary nebulae. The idea of a planetary nebula interacting with the ISM as it moves through space was proposed in 1969 by the Armenian astronomer Grigor Gurzadyan. PFP 1 lies in an area of relatively low extinction at a distance of 1800 light years and its size is approximately 10 light years. However, the cause of its interaction with the ISM isn't conclusive. It is either due to the motion of the planetary nebula or an encounter with an area of enhanced density in the local ISM as it expands outwards. In addition to its prominent Ha emission, it also contains weak OIII emission as it is a low excitation object.
Thanks to Sakib Rasool for suggesting me this little known object and for preparing the above object description.
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CG4: A Ruptured Cometary Globule

Can a gas cloud grab a galaxy? It's not even close. The "claw" of this odd looking "creature" in the above photo is a gas cloud known as a cometary globule. This globule, however, has ruptured. Cometary globules are typically characterized by dusty heads and elongated tails. These features cause cometary globules to have visual similarities to comets, but in reality they are very much different. Globules are frequently the birthplaces of stars, and many show very young stars in their heads. The reason for the rupture in the head of this object is not completely known. The galaxy above the globule is huge, very far in the distance, and only placed near CG4 by chance superposition (text adapted from APOD).Click here for a closeup of the globule taken at longer focal lenght Mouse over the image to display all resolutions available. Click "share" button on top to get direct links to download the images up to XXXL size. Click "buy" button to purchase high quality prints of this imge

Apo TEC140 (140/f7.2) - FLI Proline 16803 -Ha (410m) L (230m) R (75m) G (75m) B (80m) - Warrumbungle Observatory, Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia

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G296.2-2.8, a filamentary shell in the Milky Way

Hidden in the vast Milky Way starfields of Musca, the faint spidery tendrils of the Ha shell G296.2-2.8 envelop the brighter reflection nebula IC 2966. It is very large with a size of 1 degree, which is equivalent to the area covered by 2 full moons! It is one of hundreds of new objects discovered in the SuperCOSMOS H-alpha Survey. This particular ghostly phantom was found on Ha plates in 2001 by Andrew Walker, William Zealey and Quentin Parker. At the moment its true nature is unknown and some of the possible scenarios concerning its formation are that it might have been produced by a supernova remnant interacting with a dark cloud or more unlikely is that it might be ionised by the central star of IC 2966. If G296.2-2.8 and IC 2966 are related, then based on the distance of 10,700 light years for IC 2966, the size of G296.2-2.8 is roughly 200 light years! Despite its faintness, G296.2-2.8 would look more brighter and detailed in a high resolution mosaic with a larger telescope and is certainly a unique "hidden treasure" of the southern sky.
Thanks to Sakib Rasool for suggesting me this obscure yet intriguing object and for preparing the above object description.
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Apo TEC140 (140/f7.2) - FLI Proline 16803 - Ha (1115m) R (80m) G (60m) B (80m) - Warrumbungle Observatory, Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia

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IC 2944: The Running Chicken Nebula

Bright nebulae abound in and around the expansive southern constellation of Centaurus. This one, cataloged as IC 2948/2944 is near the star Lambda Centauri (just in the center of the frame) and not far on the sky from the better known Eta Carinae Nebula. Embedded in the reddish glowing cloud of hydrogen gas, typical of emission nebulae found in massive star-forming regions, is the energetic young star cluster Collinder 249. Seen in silhouette near the center of the view are small, dark clouds of obscuring cosmic dust. Called Thackeray's Globules for their discoverer, they are potential sites for the formation of new stars, but are likely being eroded by the intense radiation from the nearby young stars. Of course, gazing at the center of the region suggests to some IC 2948's popular name - The Running Chicken Nebula. The gorgeous skyscape spans about 70 light-years at the nebula's estimated 6,000 light-year distance (text adapted from APOD).
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Orion Nebula (M42)

The Great Nebula in Orion, an immense, nearby starbirth region, is probably the most famous of all astronomical nebulas. Here, glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an immense interstellar molecular cloud only 1500 light-years away. In the above deep image, faint wisps and sheets of dust and gas are particularly evident. The Great Nebula in Orion can be found with the unaided eye just below and to the left of the easily identifiable belt of three stars in the popular constellation Orion. In addition to housing a bright open cluster of stars known as the Trapezium, the Orion Nebula contains many stellar nurseries. These nurseries contain hydrogen gas, hot young stars, proplyds, and stellar jets spewing material at high speeds. Also known as M42, the Orion Nebula spans about 40 light years and is located in the same spiral arm of our Galaxy as the Sun. The blue nebula above M42 is NGC1977, also named the running man nebula (text adapted from APOD).
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Apo TEC140 (140/f7.2) - FLI Proline 16803 - Ha (320m) OIII(120m) R (190m) G (180m) B (230m) - M42's core data courtesy of Angus Lau, taken with a TEC180 (180mm f/7.1) - Warrumbungle Observatory, Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia

CG4: A Ruptured Cometary Globule

Can a gas cloud grab a galaxy? It's not even close. The "claw" of this odd looking "creature" in the above photo is a gas cloud known as a cometary globule. This globule, however, has ruptured. Cometary globules are typically characterized by dusty heads and elongated tails. These features cause cometary globules to have visual similarities to comets, but in reality they are very much different. Globules are frequently the birthplaces of stars, and many show very young stars in their heads. The reason for the rupture in the head of this object is not completely known. The galaxy above the globule is huge, very far in the distance, and only placed near CG4 by chance superposition (text adapted from APOD).

Click here for a closeup of the globule taken at longer focal lenght

Mouse over the image to display all resolutions available. Click "share" button on top to get direct links to download the images up to XXXL size. Click "buy" button to purchase high quality prints of this imge

Apo TEC140 (140/f7.2) - FLI Proline 16803 -Ha (410m) L (230m) R (75m) G (75m) B (80m) - Warrumbungle Observatory, Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia

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