| Butterfly Nebula, Gamma Cygni, IC 1318, & NGC 6910 |
This wide region around second magnitude star, Sadr, at the heart of Cygnus the swan, is awash in nebulosity. A huge cloud of hydrogen
emission cloud spans over 100 light years at a distance of about 5000 light years. Sadr is a foreground star at a distance of only 750 light
years. The brighter emission region in the lower left, divided by a dust lane, has been termed the Butterfly Nebula. To the north of Sadr,
which is above the star in this image, is the open cluster NGC 6910. The lower image, below, is a closeup of the bright eastern limb of the
Butterfly Nebula that I took 2 years later.
This image above (north up) combined 60 minutes of red, 40 minutes green and 50 minutes of blue exposures, all unbinned, through a
Takahashi Sky90 refractor at f4.5. The closeup image below (northeast up) combined 56 minutes of red, 48 minutes each of blue and greeen,
and 72 minutes of H-alpha exposures through an Astro-Physics Riccardi-Honders compound reflector at f3.8. A QSI-583 camera was used
for both images.
emission cloud spans over 100 light years at a distance of about 5000 light years. Sadr is a foreground star at a distance of only 750 light
years. The brighter emission region in the lower left, divided by a dust lane, has been termed the Butterfly Nebula. To the north of Sadr,
which is above the star in this image, is the open cluster NGC 6910. The lower image, below, is a closeup of the bright eastern limb of the
Butterfly Nebula that I took 2 years later.
This image above (north up) combined 60 minutes of red, 40 minutes green and 50 minutes of blue exposures, all unbinned, through a
Takahashi Sky90 refractor at f4.5. The closeup image below (northeast up) combined 56 minutes of red, 48 minutes each of blue and greeen,
and 72 minutes of H-alpha exposures through an Astro-Physics Riccardi-Honders compound reflector at f3.8. A QSI-583 camera was used
for both images.
Music:
Strawberry Fields
Forever, the Beatles
Strawberry Fields
Forever, the Beatles
