Mesdames et messieurs, les Dentelles du Cygne !

Cette nébuleuse est le rémanent d'une supernova, une explosion cataclysmique signant la fin de vie d'une étoile et parfois le début d'une autre (les supernovae finissent soir par l'explosion complète de l'étoile, soit par l'éjection des couches supérieures de l'étoile, le reste s'effondrant sous sa propre masse et finissant en naine blanche, étoile à neutron ou trou noir). Cette supernova a du se produire il y a environ une dizaine de milliers d'années et se trouve à 1440 années lumières. Autrement dit, si elle a explosé il y a 10000 ans exactement, votre ancêtre d'il y a 8560 ans (10000-1440) en est encore à tailler des pointes de flêche en silex un peu moches (mésolithique) tandis qu'en Chine ils sont au néolithique. A la même époque, la mer monte, passant d'un niveau de -15m à -3m (par rapport au niveau actuel) et la Manche se forme. Bref, à ce moment là, dégustant un des derniers mammouths au coin du feu, il assiste à un formidable spectacle céleste, éblouissant, même en pleine nuit : la supernova dont on observe les traces maintenant.

Les astronomes qui aiment bien découper les objets célestes en petits bouts, principalement pour distinguer les parties bien visibles des extensions faiblement lumineuses, distinguent la grande dentelle, la plus lumineuse à gauche, et la petite dentelle, à droite. Oui, je sais, c'est paradoxal car la grande dentelle est la plus petite sur l'image et la petite est la plus grande ; une histoire de luminosite probablement ... La grande dentelle est composée de NGC 6992 (la partie la plus brillante) et de NGC 6995 (la partie qui rebique), ainsi qu'IC 1340, les extensions faiblement lumineuses de la petite dentelle. La petite dentelle est composée de NGC 6990 (quasiment toute la petite dentelle) et de 2 petites parties en haut, NGC 6979 et NGC 6974. Les Dentelles du Cygne ne sont pas visible à l'oeil nu et à peine aux jumelles avec un très bon ciel si vous savez où les chercher (je l'ai fait le soir même et c'est parce que je savais quoi chercher que je les ai identifiées aux jumelles, sinon c'est vraiment difficile), mais la petite dentelle est collée à une étoile visible (magnitude 4.2) par un très bon ciel, 52 cygni (la 52ème étoile de la constellation du cygne), ce qui permet en se servant également de l'étoile Aljanah (epsilon cygni), une étoile très brillante, de localiser la nébuleuse, de pointer dessus (ce que j'ai fait avec un viseur point rouge sur mon appareil photo) et de cadrer la photo.

Sur cette photo, il y a également d'autres étoiles de la constellation du cygne qui sont identifiées comme 41, 48, 49 cygni, ainsi que 2 étoiles de la constellation du petit renard (vulpecula en latin ; renard = vulpes), 26 et 27 vulpeculi.

De plus, on observe sans peine à droite de l'image un amas ouvert, NGC 6940, agé de 720 millions d'années et situé à 2500 années lumière de nous. Ses dimensions apparentes étant de 25' d'arc (1 seconde d'arc = 1/60 degré), je vous laisse faire le calcul de sa dimension réelle, un peu de trigonométrie ne peut pas vous faire de mal !

Enfin, toujours sur cette image, j'ai attrapé une galaxie qui, certes, apparaît toute petite vu la faible focale employée ici, NGC 7013. Ne cherchez pas sur l'image non annotée, sauf si vous vous ennuyez à mort. C'est un point vaguement nébuleux et allongé verticalement tout en bas de l'image, au premier quart gauche de celle-ci. C'est une galaxie dont la classification la situe entre les galaxies spirales et lenticulaires. Elle est distante d'environ 40 millions d'années lumières et fait 43680 années lumières de diamètre. En comparaison, la notre (la voie lactée) en fait environ 120000. Là où je suis assez content, c'est d'arriver à la faire sortir sur cette photo car sa magnitude est de 12.4 (donc assez faible).

Pour vous aider à vous y retrouver dans tout ça, je vous encourage à aller jeter un oeil à l'image annotée sur astrometry.net : nova.astrometry.net/annotated_full/6780553

Bon, parlons techno maintenant. Pour cette reprise de mes sessions astro, j'y suis allé tranquille ; j'ai fonctionné à l'objectif seulement ; pas de telescope. Donc, ce sont 416 photos de 45 secondes de pose unitaire (espacées de 5 secondes), iso 800, prises au Canon 1200D DP-Photomax + objectif Samyang 135 mm f/2 ouvert à f/2.8 (très ouvert donc, ce qui me vaut un léger halo sur les étoiles non centrées, les brillantes principalement), prises entre 22h34 (samedi 30/07/22) et 4h09 (dimanche 31 donc), que j'ai triées pour ne conserver que les 315 meilleures, cumulant ainsi 3h56 de signal. Le suivi était assuré par une monture Star Adventurer 2i.

Tout le pré-traitement jusqu'à l'empilement des images a été fait sous Siril 1.3 en utilisant 35/35/35 DOF.

Pour le post-traitement, c'était un peu le souk. Là, la photo a subit une réduction d'étoiles. J'ai commencé par faire une starless (virer les étoiles) en utilisant StarNet V2. J'ai ensuite fait tout le reste sous Gimp : masque d'étoiles, recombinaison des images neubuleuse seule + étoiles seules, travail sur le niveau de noir / balance des blancs, ...

Comme je suis sympa, pour une fois, je vous mets le lien vers l'image sortie de l'empilement sous Siril ( flic.kr/p/2nBJNu1 ). Elle est très belle aussi mais il y a beaucoup beaucoup beaucoup d'étoiles. Forcément, c'est dans la voie lactée tout ça ! Voila pourquoi on fait un travail de post-traitement comme les réductions d'étoiles. C'est une question de goût ; moi j'aime bien les deux.

Je suis sur que je peux faire mieux comme traitement, donc il n'est pas impossible que je produise d'autres versions de cette image ... à surveiller !

168 frames, 5 min each

William Optics Fluorostar 91 with ZWO ASI2600MC-Pro and Optolong L-eNhance on AM5

for details please visit: astrob.in/oq1ln3/E/

NARROWBAND SHO

LRGB=3x10‘EACH, H-ALPHA, O-III, S-II=3x20‘ EACH

TELEVUE NP101 F5.4

SBIG STXL 11002

PARAMOUNT ME

UNTERWASSER, SWITZERLAND

N 47°12' 28" E 9°18'56"

Once upon a time there were one or two massive stars in the direction of constellation Cygnus. They exploded badly and shined extremely strongly for a short while 10 or 20 thousand years ago. The stars left this gas and dust behind. The irregular and random distribution of gas and dust are expanding at more than 100km/second at 2,400 light-years away from us. The high velocity makes the faint reddish arch surrounding the area like bow shock at the apex of ship. All in all, this is a supernova remnant. Thus they say.

Here is another sample of infrared bow shock in Camelopardalis:

www.flickr.com/photos/hiroc/53361264020

Equipment: Takahashi FSQ-130ED, F3 Reducer 0.6x, IDAS NB12 Dual Narrowband Filter, and EOS R-SP4II, modified by Seo San on ZWO AM5n Equatorial Mount, autoguided with Fujinon 1:2.8/75mm C-Mount Lens, Pentax x2 Extender, ZWO ASI 174MM-mini, and PHD2 Guiding

Exposure: 6 times x 240 secconds, and 6 x 60 seconds at ISO 6,400 and f/3.0, focal length 390mm

There encroached clouds, and exposure session got short. This is a version made only with shorter exposure frames. Total exposure length was as short as half an hour. I felt this rather natural, clearer, and beautiful.

site: 1,118m above sea level at lat. 38 56 39 North and long. 140 48 17 East in Iwakagami-daira on the southern slope of Mt. Kurikoma in Kurihara Miyagi 宮城県栗原市 栗駒山 いわかがみ平

Ambient temperature was around 13 degrees Celsius or 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Wind was mild.

From our latest pedicure. Clockwise from top left: my daughter (ILNP's Missed Calls), my wife (ILNP's Cygnus Loop), and me (ManGlaze's Dark Gray). We all decided to get a spiderweb on our big toes. Mine is done in orange and a little hard to see. I may go back and change the base color to orange with a black web. Still cool though. :)

The New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (abbreviated as NGC) is a catalogue of deep-sky objects compiled by John Louis Emil Dreyer in 1888 as a new version of John Herschel's General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars. The NGC contains 7,840 objects, known as the NGC objects. It is one of the largest comprehensive catalogues, as it includes all types of deep space objects and is not confined to, for example, galaxies. Dreyer also published two supplements to the NGC in 1895 and 1908, known as the Index Catalogues, describing a further 5,386 astronomical objects.

This image shows a small section of the Veil Nebula, as it was observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This section of the outer shell of the famous supernova remnant is in a region known as NGC 6960 or — more colloquially — the Witch’s Broom Nebula.

Target:

Veil Nebula/Cygnus Loop. A year ago I imaged this with a 200mm lens on a Canon EOS-R, but this time I wanted to maximize the detail by shooting a 6 panel mosaic at 600mm. The Veil Nebula complex is a supernova remnant of a giant star roughly 20 times our sun that exploded between 10 and 20 thousand years ago. It is located in the constellation Cygnus about 2400 light years away. For a size reference, it is about 6 moon diameters wide. The explosion left a cloud complex of heated ionized gas. The image shows the light emissions of the Hydrogen gas (red) and Oxygen III (greenblue). Most info from Wikipedia

Gear:

Mount: ZWO AM5

Main Cam: ZWO ASI294MC Pro @ gain 121 and 14F

Guide Cam: ZWO ASI120MM Mini with ZWO 30mm f/4 scope

Lens: Sigma 150-600 @ 600

Filter: Antlia ALP-T 5nm Ha and Oiii

Acquisition:

6 panel mosaic

Panels 1-4 have 2.5 hours of 5 minute subs

Panels 5-6 have 2.0 hours of 5 minute subs

Sessions on night of 24-July, 27-July, and 30-July

Location: Waller County, Texas and Austin, Texas

Bortle: 5/6

Moon: from 38 to 95 percent

Processing:

• PI - WBPP

• GraXpert background extraction on each panel

• PI - assemble mosaic

• Mosaic by Coordinates

• Gradient Merge Mosaic

○ Type of combination - overlay

○ Shrink radius - 8

○ Feather radius - 25

• PI Dynamic Crop, Image Solver

• PI ABE, SPCC

• PI Russel Croman - BXT NXT

• PI Bill Blanshan - GH Stretch

• PI HT

• PI Russel Croman - STX

• Stars Edits

○ Main Star field - PI HT Curve Saturation, SCNR, Invert and

SCNR

○ Accent Stars - PI Dust and Scratches to remove all but

bigger stars, then curves to boost.

• Starless Edits

○ PI Curves

○ PS/ACR curves clarity de-haze, Black Point, NXT

• PI combine stars and main starless

• PS Lighten Layer on Accent Stars, final ACR black points, PI Curves, watermark

This is an image I took of a large supernova remnant in the constellation of Cygnus (The Swan), which is known as The Cygnus Loop or Veil nebula. The nebula has several components, including the ‘Western Veil’ or ‘Witch's Broom’, the ‘Eastern Veil’, and ‘Pickering's Triangle’

Imaging details:

4 - Panel Mosaic

Telescope: Skywatcher Esprit 100ED

Camera: ASI1600MC Pro

Mount: Skywatcher EQ6R Pro

Acquisition: NINA; approx. 2.5 hrs on each panel using 150s exposures

Processing: Pixinsight; Photoshop

More info in: Magical Universe.

Visit: Flickr Astronomy Expo

canon 7D (unmodded) + 100/400mm f4.5/5.6L @250mm. 40x120s@2000iso. Deep Sky Stacker + rnc-color-stretch (Roger N. Clark) + PS6

Deep inside milky way

Mesdames et messieurs, les Dentelles du Cygne !

Cette nébuleuse est le rémanent d'une supernova, une explosion cataclysmique signant la fin de vie d'une étoile et parfois le début d'une autre (les supernovae finissent soir par l'explosion complète de l'étoile, soit par l'éjection des couches supérieures de l'étoile, le reste s'effondrant sous sa propre masse et finissant en naine blanche, étoile à neutron ou trou noir). Cette supernova a du se produire il y a environ une dizaine de milliers d'années et se trouve à 1440 années lumières. Autrement dit, si elle a explosé il y a 10000 ans exactement, votre ancêtre d'il y a 8560 ans (10000-1440) en est encore à tailler des pointes de flêche en silex un peu moches (mésolithique) tandis qu'en Chine ils sont au néolithique. A la même époque, la mer monte, passant d'un niveau de -15m à -3m (par rapport au niveau actuel) et la Manche se forme. Bref, à ce moment là, dégustant un des derniers mammouths au coin du feu, il assiste à un formidable spectacle céleste, éblouissant, même en pleine nuit : la supernova dont on observe les traces maintenant.

Les astronomes qui aiment bien découper les objets célestes en petits bouts, principalement pour distinguer les parties bien visibles des extensions faiblement lumineuses, distinguent la grande dentelle, la plus lumineuse à gauche, et la petite dentelle, à droite. Oui, je sais, c'est paradoxal car la grande dentelle est la plus petite sur l'image et la petite est la plus grande ; une histoire de luminosite probablement ... La grande dentelle est composée de NGC 6992 (la partie la plus brillante) et de NGC 6995 (la partie qui rebique), ainsi qu'IC 1340, les extensions faiblement lumineuses de la petite dentelle. La petite dentelle est composée de NGC 6990 (quasiment toute la petite dentelle) et de 2 petites parties en haut, NGC 6979 et NGC 6974. Les Dentelles du Cygne ne sont pas visible à l'oeil nu et à peine aux jumelles avec un très bon ciel si vous savez où les chercher (je l'ai fait le soir même et c'est parce que je savais quoi chercher que je les ai identifiées aux jumelles, sinon c'est vraiment difficile), mais la petite dentelle est collée à une étoile visible (magnitude 4.2) par un très bon ciel, 52 cygni (la 52ème étoile de la constellation du cygne), ce qui permet en se servant également de l'étoile Aljanah (epsilon cygni), une étoile très brillante, de localiser la nébuleuse, de pointer dessus (ce que j'ai fait avec un viseur point rouge sur mon appareil photo) et de cadrer la photo.

Sur cette photo, il y a également d'autres étoiles de la constellation du cygne qui sont identifiées comme 41, 48, 49 cygni, ainsi que 2 étoiles de la constellation du petit renard (vulpecula en latin ; renard = vulpes), 26 et 27 vulpeculi.

De plus, on observe sans peine à droite de l'image un amas ouvert, NGC 6940, agé de 720 millions d'années et situé à 2500 années lumière de nous. Ses dimensions apparentes étant de 25' d'arc (1 seconde d'arc = 1/60 degré), je vous laisse faire le calcul de sa dimension réelle, un peu de trigonométrie ne peut pas vous faire de mal !

Enfin, toujours sur cette image, j'ai attrapé une galaxie qui, certes, apparaît toute petite vu la faible focale employée ici, NGC 7013. Ne cherchez pas sur l'image non annotée, sauf si vous vous ennuyez à mort. C'est un point vaguement nébuleux et allongé verticalement tout en bas de l'image, au premier quart gauche de celle-ci. C'est une galaxie dont la classification la situe entre les galaxies spirales et lenticulaires. Elle est distante d'environ 40 millions d'années lumières et fait 43680 années lumières de diamètre. En comparaison, la notre (la voie lactée) en fait environ 120000. Là où je suis assez content, c'est d'arriver à la faire sortir sur cette photo car sa magnitude est de 12.4 (donc assez faible).

Pour vous aider à vous y retrouver dans tout ça, je vous encourage à aller jeter un oeil à l'image annotée sur astrometry.net : nova.astrometry.net/annotated_full/6780553

Bon, parlons techno maintenant. Pour cette reprise de mes sessions astro, j'y suis allé tranquille ; j'ai fonctionné à l'objectif seulement ; pas de telescope. Donc, ce sont 416 photos de 45 secondes de pose unitaire (espacées de 5 secondes), iso 800, prises au Canon 1200D DP-Photomax + objectif Samyang 135 mm f/2 ouvert à f/2.8 (très ouvert donc, ce qui me vaut un léger halo sur les étoiles non centrées, les brillantes principalement), prises entre 22h34 (samedi 30/07/22) et 4h09 (dimanche 31 donc), que j'ai triées pour ne conserver que les 315 meilleures, cumulant ainsi 3h56 de signal. Le suivi était assuré par une monture Star Adventurer 2i.

Tout le pré-traitement jusqu'à l'empilement des images a été fait sous Siril 1.3 en utilisant 35/35/35 DOF.

Pour le post-traitement, c'était un peu le souk. Là, la photo a subit une réduction d'étoiles. J'ai commencé par faire une starless (virer les étoiles) en utilisant StarNet V2. J'ai ensuite fait tout le reste sous Gimp : masque d'étoiles, recombinaison des images neubuleuse seule + étoiles seules, travail sur le niveau de noir / balance des blancs, ...

Comme je suis sympa, pour une fois, je vous mets le lien vers l'image sortie de l'empilement sous Siril (celle-ci) (La photo traitée dont je parle dans ce post se trouvant là : flic.kr/p/2nBHz2i ). Elle est très belle aussi mais il y a beaucoup beaucoup beaucoup d'étoiles. Forcément, c'est dans la voie lactée tout ça ! Voila pourquoi on fait un travail de post-traitement comme les réductions d'étoiles. C'est une question de goût ; moi j'aime bien les deux.

Je suis sur que je peux faire mieux comme traitement, donc il n'est pas impossible que je produise d'autres versions de cette image ... à surveiller !

My favorite object to view through a large telescope and OIII filter. The pointed end reminds me of a flourescing insect leg. It is visible in my friend's 6" f/5 scope. This nebula is the western portion of the Cygnus Loop - Veil Supernova Remnant NGC 6960. Ha/OIII/SII; 8" f4; Atik 383L+ 4.6 hrs total.- Taken Sept 2011 in the Ancient Bristlecone Forrest, Ca. Explanation: Ten thousand years ago, before the dawn of recorded human history, a new light must suddenly have appeared in the night sky and faded after a few weeks. Today we know this light was an exploding star and record the colorful expanding cloud as the Veil Nebula. Pictured above is the west end of the Veil Nebula known technically as NGC 6960 but less formally as the Witch's Broom Nebula. The expanding debris cloud gains its colors by sweeping up and exciting existing nearby gas. The supernova remnant lies about 1400 light-years away towards the constellation of Cygnus. This Witch's Broom actually spans over three times the angular size of the full Moon. The bright star 52 Cygni is visible with the unaided eye from a dark location but unrelated to the ancient supernova.

(Courtesy NASA APOD)

Another great polish from ILNP. Cygnus Loop was the first polish my wife and I wore together. Matchy matchy!

Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of part of the Cygnus Loop, which is essentially a circular nebula created by a supernova long ago. Color/processing variant.

Original caption: While appearing as a delicate and light veil draped across the sky, this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope actually depicts a small section of the Cygnus supernova blast wave, located around 2400 light-years away. The name of the supernova remnant comes from its position in the northern constellation of Cygnus (The Swan), where it covers an area 36 times larger than the full moon. The original supernova explosion blasted apart a dying star about 20 times more massive than our Sun between 10 000 and 20 000 years ago. Since then, the remnant has expanded 60 light-years from its centre. The shockwave marks the outer edge of the supernova remnant and continues to expand at around 350 kilometres per second. The interaction of the ejected material and the low-density interstellar material swept up by the shockwave forms the distinctive veil-like structure seen in this image.

A rich blue that transforms through purples and orange and even a little green.

Had to get some mowing done. Here's another look at the ManGlaze and nail art. Happy Halloween!

Cygnus Loop is one of ILNP's Ultra Chrome polishes. This picture kind of captures the color shift but it's really a wider range than this shows.

Western Veil Nebula with foreground star 52 Cygnii, in the constellation Cygnus the Swan. The last time I captured the Veil Nebula, I photographed the entire nebula including the center and eastern portions. The entire Veil Nebula itself is about the size of the full moon and visible through most telescopes as a faint wispy cloud. Like most nebulae of its kind, it's the remnants of an ancient supernova.

Ultra chrome polishes are a lot of fun. I think I've gotten more comments from them than any other I've worn.

Part of a larger supernova remnant known as the Cygnus Loop. The nebula is an expanding cloud of heated and ionised gas and dust approximately 2400 light years from earth.

Seestar S50

46 minutes of 10 second exposures.

Light adjustments in Photoshop Elements.

This is a composite of four 40 minute images taken with a 200mm Olympus lens and 3nm h-alpha filter mounted on my ST-10XME camera.

The Cygnus Loop a Supernova remnant

11x5min exposure

Unmodified Canon t2i/550D with CLS fliter

Nikon 300mm ED AF lens at F4

NEQ6 Pro mount

Guided with Orion 50mm mini guider and QHY5M

This area has so many descriptions and objects in it I'm not listing all of the accurate names. I wasn't expecting much from the skies last night as there was lots of things conspiring against me.

GALEX ultraviolet image of the Cygnus loop nebula.

My nephew, Rob took this extraordinary shot of the Veil complex.

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Robs_veil20110703 up

This image shows a small section of the Veil Nebula, as it was observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This section of the outer shell of the famous supernova remnant is in a region known as NGC 6960 or — more colloquially — the Witch’s Broom Nebula.

This large mosaic image from NASAs Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, features the wreckage of an exploded star, as well as other stars nearing the end of their lives. The wispy, colorful arc-shaped features are remnants of the explosion, called a supernova.

Located in the constellation Cygnus, this supernova remnant, called the Veil nebula, was created when a massive star exploded some 5,000 to 8,000 years ago, sending out shock waves that continue to interact with the gas and dust between the stars. This is among the largest of the WISE images featured so far covering an area equivalent to nearly nine by nine full moons.

The Veil nebula is the name that generally refers to the visible sections of the whole supernova remnant that was seen in its entirety in radio light and called the Cygnus Loop. The portion of the nebula to the right is known as the Witchs Broom nebula. It can be seen in this WISE image as a reddish, long, vertical wispy cloud of dust. The unrelated star 52 Cygni, seen in bright blue, appears to ride the nebula as if a witch on a broom. Other portions of the Veil Nebula have distinct catalog designations: NGC 6960, NGC 6992, NGC 6995, NGC 6974, NGC 6979, and IC 1340.

The colors of the Veil nebula are the result of shock waves from the supernova energizing the gas and the dust in the region and making it glow across the electromagnetic spectrum. Some astronomers suggest that the Veil nebula represents not one, but two supernova remnants that are interacting with each other.

There are several noteworthy bright stars in the image. The bright yellow star to the left of center is the star UX Cygni, a giant star in the late stages of its life. UX Cygni varies in brightness every 565 days as its surface puffs up and falls back down. Such stars create a large amount of dust in their outer atmospheres as the star moves toward becoming what is called a planetary nebula, a dying star surrounded by its shed layers. The dust surrounding UX Cygni gives it the yellow appearance in this WISE image. Towards the top and a little to the right of the image is a bright cyan star, AM Cygni, which is another variable star nearing the end of its life. On the right edge of the image we see an unidentified bright orange object. It is possibly a red giant star that is also in the last phase of its life, casting off its atmosphere as it becomes a planetary nebula.

Color in this WISE image represents specific wavelengths of infrared light. Blue and cyan (blue-green) represent 3.4-micron and 4.6-micron wavelengths, which is primarily from light emitted from stars. Green and red represent 12-micron and 22-micron wavelengths, which is mainly light from warm dust.

This is an image of a small portion of the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant, taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope on April 24, 1991. The Cygnus Loop marks the edge of a bubble-like, expanding blast wave from a colossal stellar explosion which occurred about 15,000 years ago.

Capture Details -

Bortle Class 5 backyard, SF Bay Area (East Bay)

Capture: 12 x 300 sec subs

Telescope: WO RedCat 71

Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC-Pro

Optolong L-eXtreme narrowband filter

Guide Camera: ZWO ASI290MM mini

Mount: iOptron GEM45

Calibrated with Darks, Flats and Dark Flats

ZWO ASIAIR Plus Control and Capture

Processed with DSS and Photoshop CC

The Eastern Veil Nebula is part of a much larger nebula known as the Cygnus Loop about 2,100 light years from Earth and found in the constellation Cygnus. The Cygnus Loop is the shattered remnants of a star 20 times the size of the Sun that exploded in a spectacular supernova explosion about 10,000 years ago. At the time of the explosion, the supernova would have appeared brighter than Venus, and visible in daylight. The shockwaves and remnants of the explosion sculpted this beautiful legacy of the once massive star. The nebula's red, cyan and white color rendering is a good match for the holiday season - a Christmas Tree ornament, perhaps. The colors are light emissions from different ionized gases (hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen) that make up this supernova remnant.

This is the Veil Nebula in the constellation of Cygnus.

At approximately 1500 light years away, it is the result of a supernova that happened some 5000 years ago. It is a faint cloud of gas and dust that is about 3 degrees in diameter or 36 times the area of the full moon in the night sky. Not really happy with the processing and noise on this one but can't seem to improve on it. One to revisit on a rainy day...

The Eastern Veil is actually part of a cosmic "bubble" (called the Cygnus Loop) that was created in a supernova explosion about 8,000 years ago. In a wide-field astrophotograph other parts of it can be imaged as well. The veil is fairly bright, but because it's so large it can be difficult to see visually - from my vantage site in the 'burbs I certainly couldn't see it.

I created this image from 60 two-minutes subs... I actually can't believe that I got so much detail from my location. I expected this to be a disappointing imaging session but it was anything but. I guess clearer skies are finally here after the orange haze of summer!

The Magnificent Veil Nebula!

The remains of a star that exploded about 10000 years ago. This epic cosmic explosion would have rivaled the moon to the then humans.

What would they have thought? How would they have rationalized this freak occurrence in the heavens? Would they have imagined a giant war of the gods? Maybe not, to them, a war did not mean explosions yet. Maybe it was the birth of a new god or the death of an old one or the wrath of an angry one or the blessing of a generous one or maybe, just maybe, that the death star finally blew up Alderaan.

We know what it is now. Science sure has it's limitations but has given us irrefutable knowledge about certain things. It's disheartening when we start questioning the drop in the ocean that we do know about and in the process drag a section of humanity decades, if not centuries, back in time.

Equipment:

Camera - Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II

Lens - Rokinon 135mm F2

Mount - Skywatcher Star Adventurer

Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of part of the Cygnus Loop, which is essentially a circular nebula created by a supernova long ago. Color/processing variant.

Original caption: While appearing as a delicate and light veil draped across the sky, this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope actually depicts a small section of the Cygnus supernova blast wave, located around 2400 light-years away. The name of the supernova remnant comes from its position in the northern constellation of Cygnus (The Swan), where it covers an area 36 times larger than the full moon. The original supernova explosion blasted apart a dying star about 20 times more massive than our Sun between 10 000 and 20 000 years ago. Since then, the remnant has expanded 60 light-years from its centre. The shockwave marks the outer edge of the supernova remnant and continues to expand at around 350 kilometres per second. The interaction of the ejected material and the low-density interstellar material swept up by the shockwave forms the distinctive veil-like structure seen in this image.

AKA: NGC 6960, 6992, 6995, 6974, and 6979, IC 1340, Cygnus Loop, Cirrus Nebula, Filamentary Nebula, Witch's Broom Nebula

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Photo from Los Angeles with 135mm f/2.8 lens using OIII filter. Camera is STF-8300M .

Camera setup used: www.flickr.com/photos/edhiker/9212611652/lightbox/

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More permanent picture location is: www.ipernity.com/doc/327129/23193931/in/album/431441

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field on STF-8300M = 7.82 x 5.91 deg

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The nebula lies about 1,500 light-years away, and is a supernova remnant, left over from a massive stellar explosion that occurred between 5,000 to 8,000 years ago. The Cygnus Loop extends over three times the size of the full moon in the night sky, and is tucked next to one of the "swan's wings" in the constellation of Cygnus.

6960 300 s x7 2x2 OIII 135mm f2.8 darks

Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of part of the Cygnus Loop, which is essentially a circular nebula created by a supernova long ago.

Original caption: While appearing as a delicate and light veil draped across the sky, this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope actually depicts a small section of the Cygnus supernova blast wave, located around 2400 light-years away. The name of the supernova remnant comes from its position in the northern constellation of Cygnus (The Swan), where it covers an area 36 times larger than the full moon. The original supernova explosion blasted apart a dying star about 20 times more massive than our Sun between 10 000 and 20 000 years ago. Since then, the remnant has expanded 60 light-years from its centre. The shockwave marks the outer edge of the supernova remnant and continues to expand at around 350 kilometres per second. The interaction of the ejected material and the low-density interstellar material swept up by the shockwave forms the distinctive veil-like structure seen in this image.

Narrowband image of the Cygnus Loop, a supernova remnant, includes the Western Veil Nebula, Eastern Veil Nebula, and Pickering's Triangle. Shot up on the slopes of Mt Hood.

D7500

ISO 3200

Nikkor 180mm f/2.8

Skywatcher StarAdventurer with Dec and weight

161 x 60 second lights

60 darks

63 flats

60 bias

STC Astro Duo Narrowband clip-in filter

Moon up

This image shows a small portion of the Veil Nebula - the shattered remains of a supernova that exploded some 5-10,000 years ago. The intertwined rope-like filaments of gas result from the enormous amounts of energy released as the fast-moving debris from the explosion ploughs into its surroundings and creates shock fronts. These shocks, driven by debris moving at 600,000 kilometres per hour, heat the gas to millions of degrees. It is the subsequent cooling of this material that produces the brilliantly coloured glows. This portion of the Veil Nebula is located in a magnificent part of the Veil known as the Witch's Broom Nebula to the east (to the right in the overview image). The entire structure spans about 3 degrees, corresponding to about 6 full moons. The bright blue star - dubbed 52 Cygni and unrelated to the supernova explosion - can be observed with the naked eye on a clear summer's night. The image was taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) on board the Hubble Space Telescope. The colour is produced by composite of three different images. The different colours indicate emission from different kinds of atoms excited by the shock: blue shows oxygen, green shows sulphur, and red shows hydrogen.

Taken on 3-4.09.2021

This image shows a small section of the Veil Nebula, as it was observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This section of the outer shell of the famous supernova remnant is in a region known as NGC 6960 or — more colloquially — the Witch’s Broom Nebula.

Second attempt to edit material from September 2021.

3 Hours of data in 60s subs

Gear and settings:

SWSA/Canon 450d mod/Samyang 135m f2.8/ISO 800/UHC Filter

Our dominant summer target in the northern hemisphere is this remnant of an exploded star -- the Veil Nebula or Cygnus Loop (after it's host constellation). First light for my new 6nm Narrowband filter set, with my first SII (Sulfur) filter. I selected an HSO color palette (Hydrogen/red; Sulfur/Green; Oxygen/Blue) based on the combination which looked best to me from this data set. The stars are from my 2021 RGB image.

Tech Stuff: Borg 55FL astrograph/ ZWO ASI 533MM/Astronomik NB filters/ RST 135E mount. Unguided 15-second exposures collected in SharpCap livestacks over 4 nights, July 2024: HA 70 min; SII 70 min; OIII 120 minutes from my Bortle 7 yard in Westchester County, SQM 18.9. Stars from this image www.flickr.com/photos/124244349@N07/51349123163/in/album-...

Processed in PixInsight.

This image shows the Veil supernova remnant and the surrounding sky. Due to the size of the Nebula the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope was able to only observe a small part of it in detail.

SH2-103 The Cygnus Loop is a supernova remnant in the constellation Cygnus. The remains of a massive star which exploded as a supernova approx. 20000 years ago. It is about 2400 lightyears distant. The gasses, mostly Hydrogen and Oxygen form an expanding sphere which is ionised by ultraviolet starlight and glow in the colors of red and blue-green.

More information on my Astrobin www.astrobin.com/s7qjvh/F/?nc=user

Cygnus Loop in the Constellation of Cygnus

Photo by Kevin Wisdom

Here we have stitched together the Eastern and Western Veil nebula images into the full Cygnus Loop SNR image. This image is rptated 90 degrees from the earlier image of Eastern and Western Veil nebulae. This image is followed by an annotated inverse image of the same region showing the major labelled parts of this large Super Nova remnant.

The Western Veil Nebula (or the Witch's Broom Nebula for obvious reasons) on the top right along with Pickering's Triangle.

The image FOV is about 2 degrees wide, making it four times as wide as the full Moon. It would be great if our eyes were sensitive enough to see these terrifyingly large things in the sky.

The reds are mainly hydrogen alpha emission (areas of ionized hydrogen) and the bluish-green is due to Oiii emission corresponding to regions of doubly ionized oxygen.

The Veil Nebulae are part of the larger Cygnus Loop supernova remnant which is an expanding spherical shell material left over from an exploding star.

This was also the session where I finally got plate solving to work so now the rig knows what it is looking at, then compare it to what it should be looking at and then make the necessary adjustments.

Acquisition details

Lights: 10 x 300s = 50 mins at Voorhees State Park (Bortle 5)

Lights: 14 x 300s = 1 hr 10 mins at Summit NJ (Bortle 7-8)

Darks: 12 x 300s

Camera: ASI294MC pro at - 10°C

Filter: Optolong L-eXtreme

Scope: William Optics z103 710mm x 0.8 reducer/flattener (Flat6AIII) = 568mm effective focal range

Mount: iOptron ieq30 pro

Guidescope: 50mm guidescope

Guide camera: ASI120MM mini

Software: NINA for global acquisition control, PHD2 for guiding. ASTAP for stacking, Photoshop for stretching, denoising. Lightroom for final touches and framing.