The Veil Nebula

narrowband nebulae

The Veil Nebula (Narrowband). The Eastern Veil (top) in its entirety, and about half of the Western Veil on bottom. Captured with a Tak FSQ 106 and QSI683 with Astrodon 3nm filters. 15x900sec Ha, 15x900sec OIII, 10x900sec SII.

HubbleSite.org recently published a fascinating article on the Veil, including some great Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

The Cygnus Loop, or Veil Nebula as it is sometimes called, is the expanding remains of a massive star (about 20 times the mass of the sun) that exploded some 5,000 – 10,000 years ago in our Milky Way galaxy. Its distance is still a matter of debate, but is roughly 2,100 lightQyears. Over 3 degrees across (six times the angular size of the moon), its physical diameter is some 110 lightQyears. (Note: At this scale, the WFC3 image is just about 2 lightQyears across.)

Resolution ........ 2.100 arcsec/pix
Rotation .......... -131.734 deg
Focal ............. 530.50 mm
Pixel size ........ 5.40 um
Field of view ..... 57' 35.9" x 42' 45.7"
Image center ...... RA: 20 44 58.312  Dec: +30 51 10.03