I am always amazed at the things our cameras see that we can’t. This image is of a small section of space in the vicinity of the central (more or less) star of Cygnus the Swan, Sadr, and the region surrounding it.
If I didn’t know better, and it wasn’t for the stars, the copious interstellar gas and dust in this region could almost be mistaken for an aerial view of snow-capped mountains! It’s incredible the amount of interstellar matter we just can’t see with our naked eyes -- one of the reasons I love astrophotography!
The bluish structure at the right of the image is, of course, the Crescent Nebula. This is an emission nebula about 5,000 light-years from Earth and formed by the complex interplay of fast-moving and slower-moving stellar gases from the Wolf-Rayet star, WR 136 (HD 192163), which can be seen at the very center of the nebula. WR 136 is very difficult to see in this image because I wanted to show the bright double-oxygen shell around the Crescent and because the Crescent is so small in this widefield image, it’s difficult to see the star.
Capture Dates: 9/10/24 through 9/16/2024
Equipment:
Askar 107PHQ with 0.7x reducer at fL = 524mm, f/4.9
ASI2600MC Pro (OSC camera)
ZWO 5-position 2" Electronic Filter Wheel (EFW)
ZWO ASIAir with ZWO AM5 mount -- guiding via SV106 and ASI178MM
Filters:
Antlia Dual Narrowband 5nm Ha/OIII: 151x300s [12:35]
Antlia Dual Narrowband 5nm SII/Hb: 102x300s [8:30]
ZWO UV/IR cut Luminance filter (for RGB stars) 15x60s [0:15]
Total integration time: 21:20
Processed in PixInsight and Adobe Photoshop
Hi Greg, a gorgeous image with so much to look at! I love this area in Cygnus. You could literally spend a whole imaging season just in Cygnus! And worry I'm not keeping up here. I've felt a bit overwhelmed lately with all of the irons I have in the fire and leaving for Yellowstone on Saturday morning. It was a wonderful stretch of nice weather we had but it seems to have ended for now. I haven't processed any of the data as I haven't had time. I have been installing my roof automation, and fixing all of the sticky points on operation (I made the building far too tight), but have it up and running as well as getting ready for our trip, working with the town on how we might ban 2 cycle engine leaf blowers, and getting the boat out and tucked away. It's been a really busy few weeks.
Best,
Terri
@terri Thanks so much, Terri! Good grief, it sounds like you have been/are incredibly busy! Hopefully things will settle down a bit for you and your observatory roof will be all set and you'll be back at it!! First things first, right?
Greg
