Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cygnus (Cyg)  ·  Contains:  B347  ·  PK078+00.1  ·  PK079+00.1
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Summer Butterfly, Gary Lopez
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Summer Butterfly

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Summer Butterfly, Gary Lopez
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Summer Butterfly

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Description

In the heart of Cygnus, near the bright star, Sadr, is the Butterfly Nebula (IC 1318). It flies an arc across the sky on summer evenings in Northern California. While its wings appear to be two separate nebulae, it is actually a single nebula bisected by a 20 light-year long dark lane of dust (LDN 889) that forms the body of the butterfly.

This image is composed of a strong Ha emission signal, and weaker SII and OIII signals. Relentless night time overcast here in Monterey meant that I was able collect only a few hours of data at a time during occasional and brief weather break over the last two months. This week I finally got the last couple of hours of the 20 hours total needed for this image. For me, it was worth the trouble.

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