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Veil Nebula (Cygnus Loop) #3, Molly Wakeling
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Veil Nebula (Cygnus Loop) #3

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Veil Nebula (Cygnus Loop) #3, Molly Wakeling
Powered byPixInsight

Veil Nebula (Cygnus Loop) #3

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Description

At long last...the Veil Nebula!

I have tried to capture the whole thing several times, but it's usually so dominated by stars that you can hardly see the nebula. But now, I have a) a camera lens with tight stars (the Rokinon 135mm f/2), b) a duo-narrowband filter, and c) a camera that is sensitive in the red, and that I can actually put a filter on (an astro cam vs my DSLR).

The Veil Nebula is a very cool object -- it's a supernova remnant! Also known as the Cygnus Loop, it lies about 2,400 lightyears away in the constellation Cygnus. The star in question went supernova about 10,000-20,000 years ago, and was 20 times more massive than the Sun. When it exploded, it would have been brighter than Venus, and visible during the day. The remaining gas continued expanding, and now covers some three degrees of sky in diameter, spanning 110 lightyears of space. It still glows as the shock of the fast-moving gas energizes the interstellar medium, moving at an astounding 1.5 million km (932,000 miles) per hour!

The blue-glowing gas is oxygen, and the red-glowing gas is hydrogen. Oxygen isn't necessarily the most abundant gas, but it glows brightly in the optical spectrum, making it much more easily visible.

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Veil Nebula (Cygnus Loop) #3, Molly Wakeling

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