Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cygnus (Cyg)
Pickering's Triangle - 2019, Gary Imm
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Pickering's Triangle - 2019

Pickering's Triangle - 2019, Gary Imm
Powered byPixInsight

Pickering's Triangle - 2019

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Description

This object is a beautiful supernova remnant located 1500 light years away in the constellation of Cygnus. Pickering's Triangle is the least known of the 3 main supernova remnants of the massive and beautiful Veil Nebula, also known as the Cygnus Loop. This field of view spans 1 degree, which is almost 30 light years at this distance.

This is one of my favorite objects to image. The image is 2 channel narrowband (H-O-O), with RGB stars substituted. The part I most like about this image is the sharply defined filaments of gas which flow across the colorful star background. I especially like the 2 nearly vertical, parallel lines of OIII near the center of the image. It is hard for me to imagine how those were generated.

This object was discovered by Williamina Fleming in 1904 while examining photographic plates at Harvard Observatory. The object is named after her boss, Dr. Edward Charles Pickering, the director of the observatory at that time. She had no formal advanced education and she initially worked as a maid in the home of Dr. Pickering after she and her child were abandoned by her husband. After a short time, Dr. Pickering's wife Lizzie convinced him that Williamina had the potential for achieving greater things, and he hired her to perform part-time administrative work at the observatory. She eventually went on to accomplish many achievements in astronomy, including the discovery of the Horsehead Nebula.

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