Veil Nebula in Cygnus


       
      Version 1 - Subtle (10mB)       Version 2 - Sharpened (10mB)
About this image.

The Veil Nebula Nebula is the remnant of a supernova explosion that occurred about 5 - 10,000 years ago.

These wisps of gas are all that remain visible of a Milky Way star. Many thousands of years ago (5-10,000) that star exploded in a supernova leaving the Veil Nebula, pictured above. At the time, the expanding cloud was likely as bright as a crescent Moon toward the constellation of Cygnus, visible for weeks to people living at the dawn of recorded history. The supernova remnant lies about 1400 light-years away and covers over five times the size of the full Moon. The bright wisp at the top, close to the star 52 Cygnus, is known as the Witch's Broom Nebula (also know as NGC 6960) and can be seen with a small telescope. The Veil Nebula is also known as the Cygnus Loop. NGC 6992/95 is the brighter eastern half of the nebula at bottom left. Pickering's Triangular Wisp, below and to the left of the NGC 6960 portion of the nebula is designated as Simeis 3-188.

Equipment

Telescope:                 Takahashi FSQ106N
Mount:                      Paramount ME by Software Bisque
Instrument:               FLI Proline 16803/CFW5-7 Astrodon Gen II filters

Exposure:                  Tri-color image from Ha and OIII data.
                                Ha (5nm):  6hrs  OIII: 11.5hrs 
Capture Software:       Maxim DL/CCD, CCDAutopilot V4
Processing:                Maxim DL/CCD, Photoshop CS, CCDStack, PixInsight

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