CG 12 is a Cometary Globule located in the constellation of Centaurus approximately 2,200 light years from our home planet. They are small clouds of dust and gas in the Milky Way and are so named due to their shape being somewhat similar to comets. They are typically the birthplace of stars and CG 12 is no exception as is demonstrated by the stellar activity surrounding NGC5367. Most are found in within the Gum Nebula with their shapes thought to be the result of radiation from nearby O-type stars.
This paper here from the RNAAS postulates that the shape of CG 12 has resulted from a nearby supernova explosion.
Cometary Globules were first identified in 1976 in photos taken from the UK Schmidt Telescope operated by the Australian Astronomical Observatory which is surprisingly recent given the development of astrophotography techniques in professional observatories. Part of the reason for this is the relatively dim nature of these objects which certainly presented challenges for the processing of the data for this image. Even with 25+ hours of exposure, the signal to noise ratio in the nebula was quite low and the data somewhat noisy.
The hardware configuration used for the capturing of data for this image was a Tak TSA 120 with .75x focal reducer and QSI 683 WS-8 CCD camera which gives a 1.5 x 1.0 degree field of view. This makes for a good combination here in being able to capture the full extent of CG 12.
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