Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cygnus (Cyg)  ·  Contains:  52 Cyg  ·  HD335010  ·  HD335028  ·  HD335030  ·  HD335031  ·  HD335045  ·  HD335130  ·  HD335137  ·  HD335141  ·  HD335142  ·  HD335143  ·  HD335144  ·  HD335145  ·  HD335152  ·  HD335154  ·  HD335155  ·  HD335156  ·  HD335157  ·  HD335158  ·  NGC 6960  ·  The star 52 Cyg  ·  Veil Nebula
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NGC 6960; aka Western Veil nebula or Witch's Broom or Finger of God or The Witchy on Ninja (Cygnus constellation), Dev (Dave) Prana
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NGC 6960; aka Western Veil nebula or Witch's Broom or Finger of God or The Witchy on Ninja (Cygnus constellation)

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC 6960; aka Western Veil nebula or Witch's Broom or Finger of God or The Witchy on Ninja (Cygnus constellation), Dev (Dave) Prana
Powered byPixInsight

NGC 6960; aka Western Veil nebula or Witch's Broom or Finger of God or The Witchy on Ninja (Cygnus constellation)

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Description

West Veil nebula revisit: 1305mm zoom 2 panel mosaic

NGC 6960, also known as the Western Veil Nebula, the Witch's Broom Nebula, and Sharpless 103, is the remnant from a supernova which occurred about 10,000 years ago. It is the counterpart to the Eastern Veil Nebula, NGC 6992. It's amazing filamentary structure is thought to be due to compression of expanding shells of gas as they meet the resistance of the interstellar medium. However, the shells are so thin that, with few exceptions, we see them only where viewed exactly edge-on. The fact that much of what we see as "empty" space is filled with dark dust is evidenced by the fact that more background stars are visible below the nebula than above it. This is because the shock wave has swept the area below the nebula clear of the dust, allowing more background stars to shine through. The bright star, 52 Cygni, is a type K star and is actually a foreground object with no physically association with the nebula. The Veil Nebula is a cloud of heated and ionized gas and dust in the constellation Cygnus. It constitutes the visible portions of the Cygnus Loop, a supernova remnant, many portions of which have acquired their own individual names and catalogue identifiers. Wikipedia
Magnitude: 7
Radius: 50 light years
Distance to Earth: 1,470 light years
Equipment used: Celestron Evo 8" SCT on AVX mount, with ZWO 294MC Pro main cam and ZWO 120mini guidecam, 60mm guidescope, ASI Air Plus, Optolong L enhance filter, ZWO EAF, Bathinov mask, dew heater straps and powered by two Jackery units. Five nights ago, epic data acquisition for 4 hours, yielded 4 full targets worth of data, and for West Veil nebula only:
Panel One = 6 x 180sec light subs
Panel Two = 10 x 180sec light subs
30 darks and 30 flats
Pre processing & Mosaic done in Astro Pixel Processor, and post processing in Pixinsight, with touch-ups in Paintshop pro for clarity and vibrancy. Two versions, Horizontal and Vertical, each with its stars deemphasized and Stars-less copy, enjoy!
Note: Very slight star trails due to possible guidescope flexure, DST vs SDT mismatch, or guiding rate (1X vs 0.5X) mismatch. Troubleshooting is underway on an earlier post and will update with resolution results.

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NGC 6960; aka Western Veil nebula or Witch's Broom or Finger of God or The Witchy on Ninja (Cygnus constellation), Dev (Dave) Prana