The dusty N59 star-forming region is certainly one of the Cloud’s masterpieces. Indeed, the radiance of this exquisite object is beyond words! And it is one of the few objects that exhibits a truly 3-dimensional quality when viewed with a UHC filter; its beautiful variations of glowing nebulosity interspersed with its dark dusty patches and one magnificently black dust lane.

To my eye, the nebula is also one of the few objects that looks in the telescope exactly like its nickname, the Seagull Nebula. If you have read Jonathon Livingstone Seagull, it looks like one of the gorgeous black and white photos of Jonathon after he had mastered his flying technique; one can see the wind streaming past his aero-dynamically folded wings!

NGC 2030:

16″ at 228x + UHC filter: NGC 2030 is the northwest component of the three connected patches that make up N59A and it is considerably fainter than the brightly glowing NGC 2032 and 2035 which dominate the scene. The southwest end of NGC 2030 is the nebula’s brightest section, and it appears as an oval, 1.5′ x 35″, oriented WSW-ENE, that extends from just east of mag 12.2 RMC 122 (ionising star, type O3) that lies to the west. The oval is evenly bright with soft, hazy edges. Fainter nebulosity flows north from the oval in a larger oval-shape, bringing the size of the nebula to around 2′ in diameter. This nebulosity is faint and translucent, and its edges fade away gently into nothingness in the dark skies. (Without the filter, a mag 14.5 star is involved in this nebulosity.) The very faintest nebulosity, seen with averted vision, appears to connect the nebula to NGC 2032 that lies directly southeast; but it’s more of a subtle brightening of the darkness than a nebulous glow, and RMC 122 lies in this faint bridging nebulosity. Unfiltered, the only stars of LH 82 that I can see are RMC 122, and a couple of faint stars that pop in and out of view in the nebulosity like tiny pieces of stellar glitter.

NGC 2032 (bluish nebula, right) and NGC 2035 (bluish nebula, left), separated by a prominent dust lane. Credit: ESO

NGC 2032 + NGC 2035:

16″ at 228x: The heart of the N59 complex consists of both NGC 2032 and 2035, separated by a hefty dust lane that runs roughly NNW-SSE in front of the nebula. I found that looking at them both in conjunction gave me the best portrayal of the astonishingly bright and complex nebula. Even without a filter their nebulosity is bright and bold and beautifully uneven, with the dust lane slicing dramatically through the glow. It’s a gorgeous mix of shapes with the unusual almost kidney bean-shaped NGC 2032 (concave on the east) to the northwest of the dust lane and anvil-shaped NGC 2035 to the southeast, and the whole section with a rounded indentation to the southwest.

Half a dozen of LH 82’s stars mag 12.2-14 lie scattered in the nebulosity; simply gorgeous bright white diamond studs in the nebulosity.

The view is stunning with the UHC filter! Bean shaped NGC 2032 is extremely bright, elongated roughly SSW-NNE patch, 1.5′ x 45″. It is brightest at the edge along the dust lane, with a sharply defined border that appears notched and jagged. A thin strip of nebulosity at the southeast end curls around the dust lane and connects with the NGC 2035. A thin and fainter, but noticeable, filament flows northeast.

NGC 2032’s nebulosity is very even, whereas NGC 2035’s nebulosity is complex and full of variations of glowing light, some intriguing bright knots and streaks, and also variations of darker areas. Superb! Its anvil-shape is elongated N-S, 1.6′ x 1.0′, with the widest part of the anvil on the south end where it extends out in a concave extension on the east side. Its border along the dark dust lane is raggedly irregular and sharply defined. Indeed, all its edges are nicely defined, bar its northeast end where it fades away into the gathering darkness except for a fainter filament that flows northeast from its northeastern side, paralleling the one that flows from NGC 2032… it makes the pair of nebulae and their dust lane look like a thin and somewhat stretched Thor’s Helmet!

16″ at 228x: This exotic region contains the superb juxtaposition of stellar life and death – LH 88 = NGC 2040 conjoined with a supernova remnant shell, SNR J0536-6735, on the south side. Unfiltered, LH 88 is lovely! A dozen mag 14-15 stars lie scattered in a NW-SE swathe across the softly glowing nebulosity with several more sprinkled to the south. A Wolf-Rayet star, mag 15.4 Brey 65a, lies at the southwest end of the swathe; always something special to see (and which will soon be adding to the SNR glory). N59B’s nebulosity has, rather strangely, an excellent response to both the UHC and the OIII filters, (maybe a bit better with the OIII, but it’s a toss-up) appearing on the northern end as if a brighter equilateral triangle of nebulosity, 2′ in diameter, is imposed on a gorgeously translucent nebulosity that wafts off to the northeast. The eastern edge of the triangle is sharp against the fainter nebulosity and the other edges appear to simply melt into the darkness. The interior of the triangle has some subtle variations in brightness. On the image, the southern end is a maze of delicate filaments that are entwined in complex and beautiful ways. But alas, in the telescope, there is not much to be seen of the filaments at all. It took a long, careful observation before I picked up an exceedingly faint, small and narrow, glow of the filament which forms the southwest end of the shell. The mag 13.5 star (O5-type) that is so prominent in the interior of the shell in the image is equally prominent in the telescope, east-northeast of the observed filament. In 2012 astronomers found evidence that this star was bound to the precursor star of the SNR, and survived the blast of the supernova explosion. This system contains either a neutron star or black hole and the surviving massive star. An extraordinary star to see in an extraordinary nebula!

16″ at 228x + UHC filter: N59C lies detached SE of NGC 2035 and is visible without a filter as a softly glowing, roundish patch, ~1.2′ in diameter. It has a good response to the UHC filter, appearing marginally brighter on the southeast side, and with edges that simply faded away into the darkness.