The Whirling Dervish Nebula

NGC 3247 (aka RCW 49) is a strong HII emission nebula found in the constellation of Carina between the Banana (NGC 3199) and Great Carina (NGC 3372) Nebulae. It is approx. 13,700 light years from Earth. The nebula hosts a giant open star cluster catalogued as Westerlund 2, containing around 3,000 stars with many O-class supergiants, and two Wolf-Rayet stars (WR 20a and 20b).
The nebula is also commonly referred to as the ‘Whirling Dervish’ nebula - resembling the whirling motion of a dervish dancer, the result of the dynamic interactions between the stellar winds and the surrounding gas. The likeness to a dervish dancer initially eluded me until I turned the image by 90o!