nebula

Part of my series in the constellation of Cygnus, are the Western and Eastern sections of the Veil Nebula. The relatively nearby (2400 light-years) remnants of a supernova occuring between 10-20 thousand years ago and composed primarly of oxygen, sulfur and hydrogen, making them a fantastic target for narrowband imaging. Between weather, the length of the nights and target availability, Cygnus has been one of my favorite constellations to shoot this year, after having very little luck previously with nebula imaging.

I had some great viewing of Cygnus this summer and was able to take an assortment of nebula shots that I am pretty happy with overall. The Crescent Nebula was a bit of an experimental shot for me, I really had no idea how it was going to turn out in my field of view. I wound up taking two shots about a month apart. The first one in mid-July I took a handful of light frames while just scouting around Cygnus and was pretty intrigued by the result, though the star field obscuring the nebula was pretty intense.

Capturing the Owl Nebula has probably been one of the more difficult targets for me. Bad weather, bad luck, bad tracking and just a dozen small things that all got in between me and being able to take a good photo. My first attempt was back at the beginning of April, and I had initially chosen the target to do some testing of my light pollution filter. Unhappy with the results though I doubled-down and kept making adjustments and shooting until I was able to get something I felt okay with.