This object, discovered in 1977, is comprised of filaments from the supernova remnant SNR 065.2+05.7. It is located 2500 light years away in the constellation of Cygnus at a declination of +30 degrees.  Overshadowed by the magnificent Veil Nebula (Cygnus Loop) SNR in the same constellation, this object is much more faint but still beautiful as it stands silhouetted against the dense starry background.

This SNR is huge, covering an area of 16 square degrees. This image only captures the small lower left portion of the SNR.  I have attached an image from a 2002 paper by Mavromatakis et al which shows the field of view of this image as compared to the entire SNR. The subject of this image is identified by numbers 2, 8 and 3.  Other portions of the SNR include Sh2-94 and Sh2-96.

Because it is so large, with a diameter of 230 light years, this SNR is very faint compared to the Veil Nebula. It is also very old - age estimates range from 20,000 to 400,000 years. The large age range is because there may be multiple supernova remnants overlapping in this area.  

Out of respect for this wonderful object, I refuse to call it the "Little Veil" as some do. Besides, the Veil Nebula is only 100 light years in diameter compared to this object's 230 light year diameter, so if anything this object should really be called the "Big Veil".

In the mouseover towards the top center of the image, note the tiny bright pink PN known as PK 64+5.1 at 19:34:45 RA and 30:30:58 DEC.  This small PN is located 10,000 light years away.  It spans 10 arc-seconds in our apparent view, which is a bit smaller than the current size of Venus, and has a diameter of 0.7 light year.  My longer focal length image of it is here:

Campbell's Hydrogen Star

The 10th magnitude star at the center of this PN is a WC star with a spectral type of WC9.  This central star, known as HD 184738, is unusual in that it has a very strong hydrogen spectrum, a nearly missing oxygen spectrum, and a very small planetary nebula surrounding it consisting of plumes of hydrogen and nitrogen gas.  This object was discovered in 1893 by the American astronomer William Campbell at Lick Observatory and is known as Campbell's Hydrogen Star.     A Hubble image of this object is shown here.