NGC 6960 Western Veil Nebula Supernova Remnant (astrobillbinMontana)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Cygnus (Cyg) · Contains: Filamentary nebula · Lace-work nebula · NGC 6960 · The star 52Cyg · Veil nebula

NGC 6960 Western Veil Nebula Supernova Remnant, astrobillbinMontana

Powered byPixInsight

NGC 6960 Western Veil Nebula Supernova Remnant

Powered byPixInsight

NGC 6960 Western Veil Nebula Supernova Remnant

Shown in this image is the western portion of a large cloud of ionized dust and gas in the Constellation Cygnus (The Swan) known as the Cygnus Loop. Prominent in this image is NGC 6960, the diffuse Western Veil Nebula also known by the common names, “The Witches Broom Nebula” or “The Finger of God” along with the relatively bright 4th magnitude foreground star, 52 Cygni.

This diffuse wispy nebula is the western part of all that remain of a Milky Way star that exploded in a supernova about 7,500 years ago. If we were alive on the Earth back then, the exploding supernova cloud would have appeared as bright as the crescent Moon. Today this supernova remnant has faded and expanded over time. In fact, the Cygnus Loop is physically huge as it now covers an area of the sky about 5 times the size of the full moon even though it lies about 1,400 light years distant from us. NGC 6960 itself spans about 35 light years from end to end.

Astronomers believe that we are observing NGC 6960 edge on like ripples in a flat sheet being shaken in the wind, rather than face on, which partly explains the wispy, rope-like appearance of the nebula.

If you look very closely at this image, you will note that there are fewer faint stars below this wispy remnant than above. This is due to the fact that this remnant is expanding into a dusty region of space and sweeping up interstellar material as it expands. Thus, the background sky is noticeably clearer within the Cygnus Loop than the area outside – an interesting observation pointed out by Robert Burnham, Jr. in his famous compendium, “Burnham’s Celestial Handbook, ” Volume II, page 805.

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	1262619
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

NGC 6960 Western Veil Nebula Supernova Remnant

NGC 6960 Western Veil Nebula Supernova Remnant

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Sky plot

Histogram

		...
You have no new notifications.

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

NGC 6960 Western Veil Nebula Supernova Remnant

NGC 6960 Western Veil Nebula Supernova Remnant

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Sky plot

Histogram

Notifications

AstroBin is in READ ONLY mode

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Are you really sure?

Warning!

Warning!

Are you sure?

Report abuse

Slideshow settings

IOTD/TP stats (last [x] days)

Distribution of astrophotographers

Distribution of subject types

Distribution of data sources

Sorry

Sorry

Share

Upload new revision

Upload uncompressed source (XISF/FITS/PSD/TIFF)

Delete image and all its revisions?

Delete original image?

Delete all other versions?

Delete all revisions?

IOTD/TP stats

The following people like this image

The following people bookmarked this image

Warning

Flag malfunctioning thumbnails

Contains

Remove yourself as a collaborator

Plate-solving information