Astronomy Tuesday

This is known as the Running Chicken Nebula, in the southern constellation Centaurus.

Okay, a chicken? Really? I see a bulldog face -- or maybe a hippo -- but no poultry. Maybe it's more obvious where the name came from in a less detailed image. The photographer, Andrew Campbell, took an 11-hour exposure from a backyard near Melbourne to capture this shot. I can't even imagine the equipment required to track an astronomical object across the sky for 11 hours when I sometimes can't manage to get a clear shot of a perfectly stationary building, so kudos to Mr. Campbell.


Image Credit and Copyright: Andrew Campbell