Photo of the Week for July 14, 2017
Cygnus is chock-a-block with faint nebulas—some of which are well known to backyard observers. The Veil Nebula and North America Nebula are the most familiar, though even these can be a challenge to see unless you have access dark skies and use specialized nebula filters. Perhaps slightly less well known is the region of nebulosity surrounding the star Gamma (γ) Cygni, also known as Sadr. It marks the crux of the Northern Cross and is the brightest star in the image above. Most of the nebulosity shown here is catalogued as IC1318, with a little of IC1311 intruding into the upper right (northwest) edge of the frame.
Barry Schellenberg created this photo by combining more than 30 hours of image data shot through a trio of narrow-band filters (OIII, SII and H-alpha) with a QSI 683WS(-8) “full frame” CCD camera and Borg 101ED (at f/4.1) refractor telescope at his home observatory north of Burlington, Ontario.
