The Eastern Veil

[steppenwolf]

The Eastern Veil Nebula

... and in red hues for my wife!

Image Details

Camera: QSI 683 WSG-8
Filters: Baader 7nm Ha and 8.5nm OIII
Telescope: William Optics FLT 98
Mount: Mesu 200
Exposures: 12 x 900 sec Ha + 15 x 900 sec OIII
Processing: MaxIm DL and PhotoShop CS3

General Description

The Eastern Veil Nebula, sometimes known as the Network Nebula, is part of a large supernova remnant known as the Cygnus Loop (Sharpless 103). The star that produced the nebula is believed to have gone supernova between 5,000 and 8,000 years ago.
Other major component regions of the Cygnus Loop  include NGC 6960, the Western Veil (also known as the Witch's Broom Nebula) which is centred on the magnitude +4.22 star 52 Cygni and Pickering’s Triangle (Simeis 3-188) although there are numerous other smaller regions of nebulosity. The whole remnant spans approximately 3⁰ in diameter and is believed to lie at a distance of about 2,100 light years although some sources place it at a much closer 1,400 light years.

Also known as Caldwell 33, the Eastern Veil Nebula comprises a cloud of heated and ionized gas and dust that responds very well to imaging in both Hydrogen Alpha (Ha) and triply ionised Oxygen (OIII) which is quite handy as bi-colour imaging is one of my favourite imaging modes! However, this wonderful object is also suitable for LRGB and one shot colour imaging.

The Easter Veil Nebula comprises three major catalogued regions; NGC 6992 is the brightest at magnitude +7.0 followed by NGC 6995 and IC 1340.

Discovery

NGC 6992 and NGC 6995 were discovered by William Herschel on 5th September, 1784 using his newly produced 20 foot long reflector with its 18.7 inch aperture from his Old Windsor base. However, it was John Herschel who assigned the two designations in 1825. IC 1340 was discovered by Truman Safford on 13th September, 1866.

Location

As the name implies, the Eastern Veil is the most easterly region of the Veil Nebula. The core of the Veil Nebula lies 3.25⁰ due south of magnitude +2.48 Gienah Cygni at the right hand (southern) wing of Cygnus (The Swan).

NGC 6992    RA: 20h56m 24.0s DE:+31°43'00"
NGC 6995    RA: 20h57m06.0s DE:+31°13'00"
IC 1340        RA: 20h56m 12.0s DE:+31°04'00"

The Cygnus Loop

Image Details

Camera: QSI 683 WSG-8
Filters: Baader 7nm Ha and 8.5nm OIII
Telescope: Vixen VSD 100
Mount: Mesu 200
Exposures: 8 x 600 sec Ha + 5 x 600 sec OIII
Processing: MaxIm DL and PhotoShop CS3

One Shot Colour Version from years ago!

Image Details

Camera: Starlight Xpress  SXVF-M25C
Filters: Hutech IDAS LP
Telescope: SW ED 80
Mount: EQ6 SkyScan
Exposures: 14 x 400 sec
Processing: MaxIm DL and PhotoShop 7

[laudropb]

Very nice image Steve and a very informative right up.

[RichLD]

Lovely stuff Steve, great to have such comprehensive information to accompany the images as well 

[SilverAstro]

Very nice, and interesting details, thanks.

Do you still have the exposure details please for the osc, and camera ?

[Stu]

Beautiful image of the Eastern Veil Steve, and a fantastic write up. I shall refer back to this in future. Thanks!

[Ibbo!]

lovely image

and extremely well presented

[Gina]

Lovely images Steve   Great stuff

[nightfisher]

Very nice indeed and well presented here

[steppenwolf]

Quote

Do you still have the exposure details please for the osc, and camera ?

@SilverAstro I have updated the original post with the imaging details for you.

[Scott]

Great stuff Steve and as others have said, very informative. One question though, I see the stars in your narrowband appear much tighter than the broadband. would you put this down to improved equiptment, greater experience or just the difference between the filters? 

I particularly like the veil complex image. It's a truelly stunning chunk of sky imho

 

[steppenwolf]

Quote

the stars in your narrowband appear much tighter than the broadband. would you put this down to improved equiptment, greater experience or just the difference between the filters? 

This is a combination of things, Scott.

The stars produced by the one-shot-colour camera tend to be more bloated because of the way the Bayer matrix works. The FLT 98 produces a crisper image than the ED 80 but not staggeringly so (why oh why did I ever sell that ED 80?). The narrowband filters by their very nature do cut out extraneous wavelengths of light so you do get purer stars. Finally, the one-shot-colour images were captured and processed before 'Making Every Photon Count' was available () and my processing skills have improved since then!

However, on the subject of processing, I am not that pleased with the narrowband image and for some reason I have really struggled to do this one. I started with a much larger number of subs than finally used here but was not happy with the star shapes so I re-stacked using a harsh rejection setting but in the process, I lost the beautiful smooth backgrounds that several nights of capture had allowed me to produce in the original! We all have disappointing projects no matter where we are on the learning curve .............. 

[SilverAstro]

12 hours ago, steppenwolf said:

@SilverAstro I have updated the original post with the imaging details for you.

Many thanks, very interesting comparison.

[Scott]

Cheers Steve, I think as experience grows, so do expectations. I think Mrs wolf has a point, the "Red" version has a lovely natural feel. I can't help but feel that the Eastern Veil requires rotation. It's always the face of "The Joker" in my mind

[ollypenrice]

All the palettes are attractive. Very nice work indeed.

Olly

[Rodd]

Still amazes me what a 4" scope can do.  Great image--detail is sharp.