The Cygnus Loop - Supernova Remnant
This is a shockwave of hydrogen gas expelled in a supernova explosion several thousand years ago. There is probably a remnant stellar black hole or neutron star at the centre of the cloud.
Compression of the gas clouds by the blast wave causes the multiple layers seen. These then fluoresce as energy is pumped into them.
The cloud measures about 3 degrees across the night sky, 6x the diameter of the Moon but our eyes aren’t very sensitive to the deep red light emitted by excited hydrogen gas.
To the left in the image is a region known as the Western Veil, top centre is Pickering’s Triangle and to the mid right is the Eastern Veil or “Witches Broom”.
The dense knot towards bottom left is known as the “Southeastern knot”.
This is a robotic image taken at Grand Mesa Observatory system 1 scope, Colorado. It’s 21 x 10 minute exposures with a hydrogen alpha filter.
I’ve used the program Starnet++ to remove most of the background stars.
The Cygnus Loop - Supernova Remnant
This is a shockwave of hydrogen gas expelled in a supernova explosion several thousand years ago. There is probably a remnant stellar black hole or neutron star at the centre of the cloud.
Compression of the gas clouds by the blast wave causes the multiple layers seen. These then fluoresce as energy is pumped into them.
The cloud measures about 3 degrees across the night sky, 6x the diameter of the Moon but our eyes aren’t very sensitive to the deep red light emitted by excited hydrogen gas.
To the left in the image is a region known as the Western Veil, top centre is Pickering’s Triangle and to the mid right is the Eastern Veil or “Witches Broom”.
The dense knot towards bottom left is known as the “Southeastern knot”.
This is a robotic image taken at Grand Mesa Observatory system 1 scope, Colorado. It’s 21 x 10 minute exposures with a hydrogen alpha filter.
I’ve used the program Starnet++ to remove most of the background stars.