NGC 6334 is a large star-forming region, which covers a sky area visually slightly larger than the full moon. It is one of the most active star producing regions in the Milky Way. Located about 5,500 light years from Earth it is approximately 50 light years long. The large nebular gas cloud carries the nickname of The Cat Paw Nebula since it looks like a gigantic cat footprint given the three bubbles in the image that resemble the pads of a Cat’s paw.
Imaged in Narrowband SHO Hubble Palette with RGB stars on our RH 350 wide field telescope, at El Sauce (Obstech), Chile.
Total Integration time: 33 hours
Image Processing: Mike Selby