Psychogeeks

IC2948 is the less-than-spectacular catalogue number for a nebula in the constellation Centaurus. The more popular name is the Running Chicken Nebula. Steve Crouch, an avid astro-photographer in the Canberra Astronomical Society, took the image below and asks, “Can everyone see the running chicken?”. Well, can you?

My imagination is that of an engineer with astronomy post-grad qualifications. What I see in the more typical image below is more akin to a caricature the classical illustration of a Dodo (Head to the right, feet to the bottom). In Steve’s image I see only exquisite detail including Bok Globules (top centre) and lanes of silhouetted dust.

Image credits:
S. Crouch, 2008. IC 2948, Running Chicken Nebula
M.Lorenzi and G.Favretto, 2003. IC2948 Complex