The Cocoon Nebula is both a reflection nebula and an emission nebula. Located 4,000 light-years away near the constellation Cygnus, the swan. The central star which powers the glowing hydrogen was born just 100,000 years ago, a stellar infant, and will continue to carve out the inner regions of the nebula as its stellar winds blow.
Unmistakable in this image is the reflection nebula which extends away like a tail. Consisting of mostly dusty interstellar material dense enough that it blocks the starlight from behind.
Objects like The Cocoon Nebula are very common, many completely unknown because the molecular cloud hasn't yet birthed a star. Without an ionization source, the cloud of gas and dust will remain dark and will go largely unnoticed.
Captured from my backyard observatory in Fremont, Michigan May 23 2014 using a QHY11 Monochrome CCD/Takahashi E-180
Total Exposure time 2.5 hours
Here is another version from last year using the QHY9 with it's APS size chip to compare the difference in field of view
www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=499111763469105&set=a...www.flickr.com/photos/terryhancock/8496828887/in/photostreamImage details
Location: DownUnder Observatory, Fremont MI
Date of Shoot: May 23 2014
H-Alpha 68 min 4 x 10 min, 4 x 7 min bin 1x1
RGB 72 min 6 x 4 min ea, bin 1x1
Luminance 24 min 6 x 4 min, bin 1x1
Equipment
QHY11S monochrome CCD cooled to -20C
Takahashi E-180 F2.8 Astrograph
Paramount GT-1100S German Equatorial Mount
Image Acquisition Maxim DL
Stacking and Calibrating: CCDStack
Registration of images in Registar
Post Processing Photoshop CS5
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