Ghostly Crescent

NGC 6888 - Crescent Nebula (and open cluster IC 4996).

 

The Crescent Nebular was formed when the stellar wind of Wolf–Rayet star WR 136 collided with material the star ejected during its super red giant phase. Wolf–Rayet stars are a rare set of stars with strong stellar winds and surface temperatures as high as 200,000 K. This faint emission nebula is located along the plane of the Milky Way in the constellation Cygnus.

With an apparent diameter of 1/3 of a degree - a little smaller than the moon - and a distance of 5k light-years, this nebular is approximately 25 light-years in diameter. At abut 15x the mass of our sun, and 4.7 Myrs old, WR 136 is nearing the end its life - which will end in a bang, as a supernova.

 

20180809 - Newtown, PA

 

D5500

WO-61 w/flat61

69 x 30s, 1600iso

Regim Sig1.6 with darks

---Color Preserving Stretch

Affinity Photo

 

crop - 50% resolution

 

CresNeb_sig16_APnrc_AP2_c50r90q

Done