Widefield view of the Cocoon Nebula (IC 5146) and Barnard 168 (Luca Marinelli)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Cygnus (Cyg) · Contains: B168 · Cocoon nebula · IC 5146 · Sh2-125 · VdB147

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Widefield view of the Cocoon Nebula (IC 5146) and Barnard 168

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Widefield view of the Cocoon Nebula (IC 5146) and Barnard 168

The Cocoon Nebula (IC 5146, Sh2-125, Caldwell 19) is a bright emission/reflection nebula in the constellation Cygnus. It is 12 minutes across (the span of 15 light years) and has an apparent magnitude of 7.2. The nebula is approximately 4,000 light years away and is an active stellar nursery with many young stars. The star that lights it is approximately 100,000 years old.

The dark tail that extends westward from IC 5146 is Barnard 168, a dark nebula composed of cold molecular interstellar dust.

My goal with this image was not only to capture the Cocoon but also the surrounding faint hydrogen emissions and the two Ha tails emanating from IC 5146 in particular. I have been fascinated by this region of the sky since I first saw Marcel Drechsler's reference image and wanted to attempt to image the bright signal of the nebula in the context of the surrounding dust and gaseous emissions.

Acquisition with ZWO ASI1600 camera with gain/offset settings 50/20 for LRGB and 139/50 for Ha.

Acknowledgements: I used Starnet++ by Nikita Misiura for star extraction and star de-emphasis technique by Adam Block.

Original
B
C
D
Final
E

B

Description: Adjusted brightness and contrast.

Uploaded: ...

C

Description: Cocoon brightness and presentation scale.

Uploaded: ...

D

Description: Complete reprocess of the data. Ha was included both in the red channel as well as in the super-luminance.

Uploaded: ...

E

Description: I combined early and late versions in Photoshop using Lighten blending mode to preserve star appearance. A few curve adjustments to improve contrast.

Uploaded: ...

Cloudy Nights
ZWO ASI1600MM/QHY163M
Takahashi Refractors
Northeast Imagers

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	2824970
PixInsight job	T8FXS9JLJ6K9H9XEQWD7ERXMKNPMIAQX
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

RA (center)	21h51m01s.11
RA (top/left)	21h45m08s.91
RA (top/right)	21h55m40s.78
RA (bottom/right)	21h57m00s.71
RA (bottom/left)	21h46m12s.76

Dec (center)	+47°29′45″.7
Dec (top/left)	+46°56′53″.4
Dec (top/right)	+46°40′51″.9
Dec (bottom/right)	+48°01′29″.4
Dec (bottom/left)	+48°17′57″.2

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Widefield view of the Cocoon Nebula (IC 5146) and Barnard 168

Widefield view of the Cocoon Nebula (IC 5146) and Barnard 168

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Widefield view of the Cocoon Nebula (IC 5146) and Barnard 168

Widefield view of the Cocoon Nebula (IC 5146) and Barnard 168

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