Photographic wanderings

• French

24th June 2011, I took a photograph of a part of Veil Nebula with my telescope WO Megrez 110. Despite I got details in the nebula, I wasn’t very satisfied : except some technical problems, the photographic field was too tight for me.

31th July 2011, I took another photograph of this summer star with a lens with a shorter focallength (Zoom Canon 70-200 2.8 L, set at 200 mm). The purpose was to have the entire nebula.

For those who don’t know this nebula, it is in the Cygnus constellation, in its wings near the star 52 Cygni.

The Veil Nebula is a supernova remanent that exploded about 10’000 years ago. It is about 1’400 light years away. Its angular size in the sky is about 3.83° x 2.67° (the angular diameter of the Full Moon is 0.5°).

This photograph that covers a field of view of 6.36° x 1.24° in the sky shows you the entire nebula (denominated Sh2-103 in the Sharpless catalog) :

• the Eastern Veil, on the left, known as Caldwell 33 that groups the nebulae NGC6992, NGC6995 and IC1340

together

• the Pickering’s Triangle (NGC6960)
• the Western Veil (also called the “Witch’s Broom”), on the right, known as Caldwell 34 or NGC6960 (the Western Veil and de Pickering’s Triangle are grouped together under the same NGC identification

Just above the Pickering’s Triangle and on the right of the Veil Nebula, you can see darker parts calls dark nebulae. They are LDN868 et LDN864 in the Lynd’s Dark Nebulae catalog. They are generally interstellar dusts hidding the light coming for the stars behing them.

Lastly, just for fun, the photographic field contains a tiny galaxy (in this picture of course, its angular size is 4′ x 1.4′) : NGC7013. If you want to see it, just look at the caption in order to locate it and then go to the full size version. This galaxy is at about 46.3 millions light years away.
As for reminder, the star 52 Cygni is at 206 light years away, the Veil Nebula is at 1’400 light years away.

You will have noted also a large number of stars. This photographic field presents a part of the Milky Way, our galaxy : a dense area full of stars. I didn’t use a filter that could have attenuated their light in order to enhance.

As for the picture itself and the processing, I let you have your opinion (I’m interested in your comments or advice). A point however: I noticed the red channel ofthe photograph is blurred. I don’t know where it comes from. I suspect some mist in altitude (I have other photograph taken with this camera and lens where the red channel is as sharp as the others).

The “full size” version, for astrophotographers, can be found >> HERE <<.

the small caption with the size of the Full Moon in order to have a scale:

Technical informations :

• Object(s) : Sh2-103 (the entire Veil Nebula) including the Western Veil (Caldwell 34 or NGC6960), the Pickering’s Triangle (alsoNGC6960) and the Eastern Veil Caldwell 33, the dark nebulae LDN 864, LDN868 and the tiny galaxy NGC7013
• Place : Ajon (Bogève – Haute-Savoie – France)
• Date : 31th July 2011
• Constellation : Cygnus (Cyg)
• Numerical device : Canon EOS 350D Baader
• Lens : Canon 70-200 2.8 L (set at 200 mm f/3.5)
• Number of shots: 53
• Unit exposure time: 5 min at 200 ISO (i.e. total exposure : 4h25)
• Mounting: Losmandy G11 + Gemini
• Guiding with LVI Smartguider on a William Optics Zenithstar 66 SD + Geoptik dual Vixen / EQ saddle
• Pre-processing / Processing : Deep Sky Stacker, Pixinsight LE, Photoshop CS5

Useful link :

• The Veil Nebula (Wikipédia)

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