Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cygnus (Cyg)
Pickering's Triangle, Astro Snapshot
Pickering's Triangle
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Pickering's Triangle

Pickering's Triangle, Astro Snapshot
Pickering's Triangle
Powered byPixInsight

Pickering's Triangle

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Description

The Pickering’s Triangle (has no NGC number, though NGC6979 is occasionally used to refer to it) - was discovered photographically in 1904 by Williamina Fleming, but credit went to Edward Charles Pickering, the director of her observatory. It’s part of a supernova remnant, many portions of which have acquired their own individual names and catalogue identifiers.

The source supernova was a star 20 times more massive than the Sun which exploded between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago. At the time of explosion, the supernova would have appeared brighter than Venus in the sky, and visible in daytime! Its distance to us is about 2400 light-years.

If the whole complex was visible with a naked eye it would be 6 times bigger in diameter than the full Moon. 

I collected the data while our summer holidays, in Croatia. Yes, I took my big telescope and all the stuff there (from Poland)!

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Pickering's Triangle, Astro Snapshot

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