September 06, 2021
The Veil Nebula
This is the Veil Nebula, a remnant of a star that exploded between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago. It is located about 2400 light years from us in the constellation Cygnus. What is imaged here is only the visible portion of the supernova remnant. Adding radio, infrared, and X-ray reveals the entirety of what is known as the Cygnus Loop.
The Veil consists of many different cataloged objects including:
C33: The Eastern Veil (left side of image), containing NGC 6995 (Bat Nebula) and NGC 6992.
C34: The Western Veil (NGC 6960 The Witch’s Broom) on the right of the image near the bright star.
Pickering’s Triangle near the top and about 2/3rd to the right.
This false color image shows oxygen as blue and hydrogen as red orange. I captured it over two nights, totaling a little over 8 hours of exposure time. Personally I think the Eastern Veil looks like a monster, pretty close to a xenomorph in my mind. The quantity of small stars was pretty overwhelming so I had to reduce their brightness to make the nebula easier to see.