AP#35 : NGC 2467
Name: The "Skull and Crossbones" nebula
Constellation:Puppis
Instrument: 8-inch F5 reflector with sky watcher coma corrector and an ASI 2600MC (Gain 100 -20C)
Exposure time:16 Five-minute and 9 three-minute exposures.
Star Chart from Michael Vlasov's Deep sky hunter star atlas available on line https://www.deepskywatch.com/deep-sky-hunter-atlas.html
Magnitude: 7.1
Angular size: 14'
NGC 2467 is an emission nebula that is a star forming region. The brightest part of the nebula is illuminated by the star HD 64315. While the designation in the deep sky atlas is an open cluster, there is no distinct cluster of stars where NGC 2467 is located. They are just stars not associated with each other and appear to be in a cluster. Nearby Haffner 18 and 19, are clusters, which have nebulosity associated with them. The name indicates that the nebula has the shape of the skull and crossbones one finds on a flag flown by pirates. It takes some imagination to see this from this picture. I see some resemblence if one flips the image with south being up.
