Shelley Jackson’s broad view of the Western Veil Nebula — also known as the Witch’s Broom — swept the competition, handily winning Photo of the Week on May 13, 2022.
The Veil Nebula — about 2,100 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Cygnus — is the visible portion of the Cygnus Loop, a supernova remnant that formed roughly 10,000 years ago when a massive star exploded. The shockwaves and debris from the blast sculpted the Veil Nebula’s ionized gas, creating a delicate scene about 110 light-years across. The nebula fills about three degrees — or six full Moons — in our sky.
Jackson said this image was her first of the Veil in narrowband. Shooting in April 2022 from Bortle 7 skies in Sarnia, Ontario, she said she captured the data with a 81mm William Optics GT Triplet APO on a Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro mount and a ZWO ASI183mm pro CMOS camera cooled to -20. She collected 46 180-second exposures of data using a Hydrogen-alpha filter and 42 120-second exposures of data using an Oxygen III filter.
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