An hour with the Veil

[Froeng]

A bit of an update! It was clear last night! This was the first moon-less night for a loooong time. Started observing around 8.30 BST and gave the “wisp” a go. Due to local light pollution (I am in the centre of a small city) and background light pollution ( the small city is just outside of London), I have recently started using an observation cloth. My sky is about bortle 6. But overhead, I can JUST ABOUT see the very faint glow of the milky way. I use the cloth over my head like you used to see photographers use their cameras in the olden days - if you know what I mean. Started off with the blinking planetary to get dark adapted. After about 10mins, goto’ed across to 52 Cygni and the Veil was nicely visible with the OIII filter. Followed the nebulosity up north and down south to the end, then slewed across to NGC 6992. This part was brighter and revealed more structure, especially the Southern portion, which broke up into “fingers”. After observing a few minutes, I set the Goto to H-198301, which is one of the brighter stars in the middle of the wisp. It took a good few minutes until I could see some very faint nebulosity appear from the background noise. It wasn’t much - but definitely there! A few patches of mottled glow appeared. I used both 30mm and 50mm eyepieces with the  OIII in the C8. I even tried my trusty 26mm Vixen Plössl from the 80s, but the field of view was a bit limited. I will definitely try this again under darker skies! The observing cloth makes a HUGE difference! Highly recommended…

[Stardaze]

That’s really encouraging. I’ve had my mother make me one too and haven’t had chance on a moonless night yet but certainly helped with stray lights on the few occasions the neighbours were using their garden lighting. 

[Whistlin Bob]

Yeah- this is one of those showpiece targets that just gets better each time you return to it. My preferred combination for this is an aero 30mm ep with Oiii filter (mines a Baader one that I originally bought for imaging). In my scope (1650mm focal length) it means the eastern and western sections fill the view. They're really obvious to spot, but by relaxing and scanning round the fov the little wisps and stray filaments gradually emerge, especially between Pickering's triangle and the witches broom.

I always find myself imagining the violence of the event that created this vast structure, and the forces that have lead to the different shapes that we see, and which will continue to evolve and dissipate. 🤯😁