Got the Veil!!

[jetstream]

Pretty excited here,Ok I got part of the Veil,looked kind of like this ).....it was HUGE,very visible with the Ultrablock,found it with 23mm Luminos then switched to the 16mm Nagler for more contrast.I'm pretty sure I couldn't see all of it,in my new Pocket Atlas it shows 2 main parts,I looked & looked but no go on the rest.But it did stand out well with the filter,I tried with out it & never would have seen it.Period.The rest of the evening was great with M81,M82 actually bright with the 7mm Luminos giving the brightest view(10mm about the same),the Ring was bright and for once the Dumbell was bright with some structure,however the Ultrablocked KILLED it,almost lost the view.Oh yeah M31 was awesome-huge,bright-it sure pays off to have dark skies with some good seeing,which lasted about an hour or so before the Moon appeared....so I came home.So its taken a while to learn a few things.....but planning on objects near the Zenith sure helps too.One more thing I split Izar again this time at 105x-briefly,but at higher power all the time,this object amazes me....that bright blue little star.Off to bed now.

[swamp thing]

Congratulations on the veil nebula Gerry. You'll nail the other section in time buddy

Like you said, dark skies are a massive benefit and make more difference than anything else to us visual observers.

Always best to hunt for objects near the zenith whenever possible too, looking through less atmosphere really helps.

[bingevader]

Sounds like a great night/morning!

Congratulations!

[YKSE]

Congratulations on a rewarding night!

[John]

Well done on the Veil. It's a complex and fascinating object that you will come back to over and over again. The best sumer / autumn DSO in my opinion

The brightest section is the Eastern Veil (NGC 6992) which curves gracefully right across the field of view of most eyepieces. The Western Veil or "Witches Broom" (NCG 6960) winds like a ghostly river of light past the star 52 Cygni and is over 3.5 degrees away from the Eastern portion - it can seem quite a long way to "pan" to find it !. There are other segments such as Pickerings Wisp which can be seen under really dark, transparent conditions.

You may have seen this but it's useful if you have not:

http://observing.skyhound.com/archives/aug1/NGC_6960.html

[Lorne]

Congrats on your find Gerry, I tried to find this a couple of nights ago with, AND without my UHC filter but but failed to spot it, the sky wasn't quite dark enough here at the time I was out, I'll have another try in a couple of weeks.

[Astro Imp]

Well done Gerry.

The Veil is one of my next targets when I finally get a clear dark night.

[cotterless45]

Got the Eastern Veil between the clouds last night. The sky above the cloud gaps was incredibly black, Nick.

[John]

Got the Eastern Veil between the clouds last night. The sky above the cloud gaps was incredibly black, Nick.

I've noticed that effect before Nick - it's almost as if the clouds absorb the light pollution leaving the gaps ultra-black. Maybe that is whats happening ?.

[Stu]

Nice one Jetstream, it's a great one to see.

It's a huge object so you would only have fitted one part in the field of view, most likely the Eastern Veil which I find to be the brighter of the different elements. A UHC or OIII filter certainly makes a big difference on this one, as do dark skies.

Regarding the sky looking black between cloud gaps, I've certainly noticed that too. Is it possible though that's its more you losing a little dark adaptation due to the LP reflected off the clouds, so the sky between seems darker?

Stu

[jetstream]

Well last night didn't look too promising but I drove 55km out to a spot that I knew of & it turns out it will be my fall & maybe winter site,very handy & just into the "grey" light zone.The Milky Way was visible over to Cassiopeia,which surprised me as there was scattered light & dark clouds blowing around, so I set up my scope anyway.And I have to say I GOT THE OTHER VEIL!! 6960 I believe.I didn't realize that this part was around 52 Cygni and that I could see this star easily naked eye,which really helps.Also the separation of the Veils is much wider than anticipated-this object as a whole must be huge.6992 was visible with no filter-faint-but better than the other night, with a different site & now my object recognition is helping too.With the Ultrablock I saw 6960 as a faint wisp,with direct vision and once again I was excited,that is until the clouds took over and I lost site of almost everything,including the Big Dipper.The good viewing only lasted about 40 minutes,and it was really worth it, but its too bad that the clouds came in when the sky was going really dark.Tomorrow the Oii filter willl be in & it will be interesting to compare the Ultrablock to it,can't wait.

[Stu]

It certainly is big!! :-)

This shows it with Telrad circles overlaid, the biggest is 4 degrees.

I can see the whole lot together from a dark site with refractor, 31mm Nagler and OIII. This gives a 3.68 degree fov, the blue circle on the chart.

Really glad you saw the Western part too, it's a lovely object :-)

Cheers,

Stu

[John]

Well done Gerry !

I was observing the Veil myself last night with a combination along the lines that Stu mentions above and could just see both the E & W segments in the same field of view plus traces of other sections between the two. I could actually pick out the E part without a filter last night with my 4" refractor.

The O-III should enhance the contrast of this object a bit more than the Ultrablock does.

[Lorne]

Got it myself last night from our groups dark site in the Pentland Hills, first the Eastern, VERY feint in my 28mm but definitely there. Put in my UHC and it popped into view very clearly. Similar with the Western segment, the view enhanced by the filter. Its definitely an object I'll go back to and spend more time on as last night I was mainly on the look out for Perseid meteors

[scarp15]

I enjoyed observing both segments of the Veil last night to, for the first time this year. I also managed to observe a nicely defined Crescent Nebula, something I often struggle with due to its diffused nature. Both were oberved with a 2" OIII filter. Certainly some perseids darting around to.

[nicks90]

i was lucky enough to get a really good view of the western veil using garys 20" dob and appopriate filters at the kieder observatory - it is truly inspirational. an amazing sight.

[Stu]

At the other end of the scale, I got it last night with my Canon 15x50is binos fitted with one OIII and one UHC-S filter. Skies were very good at times, M13 visible naked eye.

The Eastern part was very clear, nicely resolved. The area around Pickering's triangle was definitely visible, whilst the Witches broom was very tricky. With averted visible (and some deep breathing!!) I could just about make out the narrower, brighter section around 52 Cygni and recognise the shape. These parts were very challenging and right on the limit of what was visible.

The North American Nebula on the other hand was lovely, could really see the full extent of it and the shape. Lovely stuff.

Stu

[athornett]

I saw veil last night for first time ever. I was also surprised how big it was. I used 15 x 70 binos, no filters. If it had had the time I would like to have tried filters but I had work today. I note folks here have used UHC and OIII filters - which is best for the veil?

Andy

[athornett]

After my observation above, I was shocked to see the veil again last week - the sky was clear enough to see M110 by direct vision although I could not observe M101. I used an UHC filter on my Dark Star 10" with 20mm Explore Scientific eyepiece (100 degree) and panned around Cygnus and was absolutely shocked to come across an obvious segment of an arc of a circle in the appropriate area. It was really obvious! When I looked at my phone to call Damian (Takman) and looked back at the eyepiece the loss of night vision from the phone screen meant the middle piece of the arc disappeared although the two tips remained. I never expected to observe the Veil nebula so clearly from Lichfield! I could not see it at all without the filter. OIII filter allowed me to see it but quite so clearly. Interesting, I was also able to pull out the gulf region of NGC7000 from the Cygnus star clouds with the filter as well. Makes the purchase of a 2" UHC well worth it!!!

Andy