Photo of the Week for July 19, 2019
A popular summertime deep-sky object, the Veil Nebula in Cygnus is the remnant of a supernova explosion that occurred some 15,000 years ago. It’s also one of those objects that’s very striking in photographs, but can be difficult visually. Clear, dark skies are a must for observing this delicate, roughly three-degree-wide nebulosity. A narrow-band nebula filter is a big help, too, if you want to see it well. The photo presented here shows the Veil’s western arc, catalogued as NGC6960. The bright star midway along its wispy expanse is 4.2-magnitude 52 Cygni—a marker that makes locating the nebula a touch easier.
Benjamin Law made this Veil Nebula portrait from Stouffville, Ontario. He used an Explore Scientific N208CF 8-inch f/3.9 Newtonian reflector telescope, a STC Astro Duo-Narrowband filter and a ZWO ASI294MC Pro imaging camera to acquire the 2.8-hour exposure data used for the shot. North is to the left.
