The Seagull Nebula is an emission nebula that crosses from Monoceros into Canis Major but this is the northern part of the Nebula in Monoceros. I wish the scope’s field of view was large enough to capture the whole nebula or there was time left in the season to make a mosaic. Perhaps next year.

One of the reasons I like to label these images with a widely recognized common name when possible is this nebula shows up in a bunch of catalogs: IC 2117, Gum 1, Gum 2, RCW 1, Sh2-292, Sh2-296, LBN 1027 are all designations for the nebula (or sometimes part of the nebula). In images that cover a wider field of view, this really does give an impression of a soaring seagull but the effect is somewhat less here in this tighter view.

The nebula or at least the Seagull’s head (the round portion toward the top) is about 3,600 light years away. I’m not sure how far the “wings” are.

This is 22h 8m of SHO data with RGB stars. You can find the technical details at astrobin.