The Veil Nebula complex is a supernova remnant located some 1,500 light years away in the constellation of Cygnus. It is believed that the original supernova would have been visible on Earth around 3,000 - 6,000 BC.

The Veil Nebula covers an area of the sky roughly 3° (6 full moons) in diameter. This took 4 panels of my widest-field telescope/camera combination - a William Optics Star 71 telescope with a Moravian G2-8300 camera. I was, at the time, running a dual Star-71-G2-8300 rig. Nevertheless, the mosaic took 2 years (3 seasons) to complete from my home observatory in the UK.

Whilst gathering the widefield mosaic data, I undertook various other Veil projects from different scope/camera combinations. It seemed sensible to include all of that data in the final mosaic.

Shortly after presenting my bicolour (Ha-OIII-OIII) version (Veil Nebula Complex: 110 Hours, 2 Years, 3 Countries), I was contacted by Olly Penrice who offered to share his RGB data of the same area.

This means that the finished image is made up of data from six telescopes located in four countries (the UK, USA, Spain and France). These are: two Williams Optics Star 71 telescopes with Moravian G2-8300 cameras at my home observatory in the UK; a Takahashi 106 and QSI 683 located in New Mexico, USA (Deep Sky West); another Takahashi and QSI 683 located in a remote observatory in Spain (e-EyE – jointly owned with Barry Wilson); an Esprit 120 with QSI 690 also at my home observatory; and a further Takahashi 106 telescope equipped with an Atik 11000 from Olly’s site in the Haut-Alpes (one half of his dual rig). Filters were a mix of Astrodon and Chroma 3nm and 5nm along with Baader RGB.

The main 4 panel mosaic was captured between 20 October 2016 and 7 October 2018. The supplemental data was captured between 30 August 2016 and 6 August 2018.

Here is a brief summary:

Ha:

WO Star 71 x2 (UK): 69 x 1200s (4 panels)

Tak 106 (Spain): 41 x 1200s (2 panels)

Tak 106 (USA): 22 x 1800s

Esprit 120 (UK): 30 x 1200s (2 panels)

OIII:

WO Star 71 x2 (UK): 61 x 1200s (4 panels)

Tak 106 (Spain): 39 x 1200s (2 panels)

Tak 106 (USA): 22 x 1800s

Esprit 120 (UK): 25 x 1200s (2 panels)

RGB:

Tak 106 (France): 54 x 600s (3 panels)

This gives a total of 119 hours and 20 minutes.