NGC 2467 — Skull and Crossbones Nebula

A dramatic emission nebula complex in the southern constellation Puppis, roughly 13,000 light-years away — one of the more striking HII regions in the southern sky. The "skull and crossbones" name comes from the eerily face-like central glow, with bright nebulous arms extending out on either side. The most spectacular feature in this image is the bright blue OIII bubble in the lower-right — a beautifully sculpted shell of ionised oxygen carved by stellar winds and ultraviolet radiation from a single hot O-type star (HD 64315) at its centre, one of the hottest stars known. The orange-gold regions are hydrogen-alpha emission lit up by the young open cluster Haffner 18, embedded in the brightest area; the dark dust silhouettes throughout the field are dense molecular clouds caught mid-erosion by the cluster's radiation — the same kind of structures where the Pillars of Creation form in M16. The whole region is an active stellar nursery, with new stars forming inside the dense dust filaments.

Captured from Willoughby in suburban Sydney (Bortle 7) over four nights between February and March 2026, under the dark moon windows.

EQUIPMENT
🔭 Askar 91F quadruplet APO refractor (609mm f/6.7)
📷 ZWO ASI585MC one-shot colour
🔬 Antlia ALP-T 3nm dual narrowband filter (Ha + OIII)
⚙️ AZ-EQ6 GT mount

ACQUISITION
227 × 300s subs, 18.9 hours captured
179 frames used, 14.92 hours final integration (79% efficiency)
Background noise 1.88% (Ha channel), Multi-channel analyser Ha σ26.7, contrast 1.502x , max-min ratio 9.72

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