About 8000 years ago a star 20 times the size of our Sun ended its life in a massive explosion known as a supernova, A blast wave from the stellar explosion is hitting cooler, more dense interstellar gas and emitting light in the process.
The Veil Nebula is about 2100 light years from Earth spanning 110 light years across.
Because the Veil Nebula is so expansive, astrophotographers love to capture separate sections of the nebula, which have been allocated different names.
The Western Veil Nebula, NGC 6960, is also known as the Witch’s Broom, due to its long, thin, raggedy appearance.
The Eastern Veil, also known as NGC 6992 and Caldwell 33, contains NGC 6995, or the Bat Nebula. Together, NGC 6992 and NGC 6995 are collectively known as the Network Nebula.
Just above the Western Veil you’ll find Pickering’s Triangle, named after the American astronomer Edward Charles Pickering who in the late 19th/early 20th century headed Harvard College Observatory.
The image was created from 163 120 second exposures using a 250mm focal length William Optics Redcat 51 telescope fitted with a special narrow band filter. The reds are ionized hydrogen and blue ar ionized oxygen III.
I removed the stars from the annotated image and reduced the stars by about 80% in the other image.
Thanks for visiting and your comments are appreciated.
