Combination of 22, 30 second images
Modified Canon Digital Rebel DSLR camera. 135mm f/2.8 Olympus lens.
About half way between the eta carina nebula and the Southern Cross, lies a faint nebula IC 2944. Hans Vernberg in his "Atlas of Deep Sky Splendors" calls this object, the "Running Chicken Nebula", as does "The Sky". However "The Sky" uses the designation to refer only to the portion of the nebula actually around lambda centauri. The larger patch to the left, is designated by "TheSky" as IC 2948. MegaStar however, gives IC 2944 as an open cluster, and indicates that it is surrounded by a reflection nebula, listed as IC 2948. However, from the colour of the nebula, and the way it is receored very strongly in when using an h-alpha filter, MegaStar is certainly wrong to classify it as a reflection nebula. It is most certainly emission.
The nebula is visible without too much difficulty with a 10" telescope under dark skies. The biggest problem with observing it is the light from the 3rd magnitude star, lambda centauri, which is imbedded within the nebula.
Adding the H-alpha image as the luminance channel increasing the visibility of the nebulosity. Unfortunately it does so at the cost of making the image very salmon-coloured.