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Crescent Nebula. Hubble palette

The Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888, Caldwell 27, Sharpless 105): an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, about 5000 light-years away from Earth. It is formed by the fast stellar wind from the Wolf-Rayet star WR 136 colliding with and energizing the slower moving wind ejected by the star when it became a red giant around 250,000 to 400,000 years ago. The result of the collision is a shell and two shock waves, one moving outward and one moving inward. The inward moving shock wave heats the stellar wind to X-ray-emitting temperatures.

 

H-alpha and O-III data collected August 26, and S-II data collected September 3 and 4. 3 hours each channel, for 9 hours total integration. Sulfur-II mapped in Red, Hydrogen-alpha mapped in green, and Oxygen-III mapped in blue. ES 102mm refractor with 0.8x focal reducer (571mm effective focal length), ZWO ASI 1600 camera at -10C.

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Uploaded on September 7, 2017