by Craig and Tammy Temple
The Veil Nebula is a large supernova remnant in the constellation Cygnus. Even though it is large (covering about 3x3 degrees) it has an overall visual magnitude of about 7. It was discovered in 1784 by William Herschel and he described it as "Branching nebulosity...". In this image, the far right portion is the Western Veil, NGC 6960 or Witch's Broom. The triangular structure to the top center is NGC 6979 or Pickering's (or Fleming's) Triangular Wisp. The bottom left is the Eastern Veil or NGC 6992/6995.
Telescope: William Optics ZenithStar 66 at f/4.7
Accessories: William Optics 0.8x FR/FF vII
Mount: Orion Atlas EQ-G controlled by EQMOD
Guiding: Orion StarShoot AutoGuider on Orion 80ED
Camera: Self-modified Canon Digital Rebel XT
Filters: Astronomik CLS-CCD EOS Clip
Exposure: 78 x 240sec @ ISO 800 (5hr. 12min.)
Acquisition: ImagesPlus 3.75 Camera Control
Processing: ImagesPlus 3.75 – Calibrated, registered, Sigma-clipped averaged, DDP
Post-processing: Adobe Photoshop CS4; Gradient XTerminator; Noise Ninja
Date(s): August 12, 13 & 24, 2009
Temperature(s): 77ºF, 81ºF & 73ºF