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| Pickering's Triangle and the Witches Broom Nebula. Seestar S30 EQ mode. Cropped selection from a 60 minute stack of 60 second light frames. |
"Part of the Veil Nebula in Cygnus and the remnants from a supernova. One of the joys of the Northern Hemisphere's summer and early autumn skies " - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory in Lowestoft, Suffolk, UK.
The Cygnus Loop: Scientific Description
The Western Veil Nebula & Pickering’s Triangle (Cygnus Loop)
This wide-field capture features two prominent components of the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant: NGC 6960 (the Western Veil, or Witch’s Broom) and Pickering’s Triangle (Simeis 3-188). Located approximately 2,400 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus, these intricate filaments trace the expanding shockwave of a core-collapse supernova that shattered a massive star roughly 10,000 to 20,000 years ago.
Arcing across the upper section, the Witch’s Broom forms a sharp, delicate shock front visually anchored by the bright foreground star 52 Cygni (mag 4.2). The ribbon displays strong colour separation created by distinct atomic transitions: rich magenta-red hues from ionized hydrogen (H alpha emission at 656.3 nm) complemented by subtle cyan filaments corresponding to doubly ionized oxygen ([O III] emission at 500.7 nm), where supersonic shocks heat the interstellar medium. Across the lower frame, Pickering's Triangle unfolds into a intricate web of braided gas threads, showcasing diffuse hydrogen emission interlaced with faint ionization boundaries.
Acquisition & Processing Details:
Telescope/Camera: ZWO Seestar S50 (Equatorial Mode)
Integration: 60 × 60s exposure lights (1 hour total integration)
Gradient Correction: GraXpert
Star Separation: StarNet GUI
Post-Processing & Composition: Affinity Photo 2
