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Wednesday, January 5, 2022

Cygnus Mosaic in Visual Colors

 Three Musketeers of Swan 

Deepest and most detailed image showing the whole constellation Cygnus ever taken

There are three large supernova remnants visible in this image. The Veil nebula is the most bright of them, other two are really dim and diffused. I spent about 200 exposure hours for those two alone to show them well. I call this trio to the Three musketeers. 

I like the new composition, it's very dynamic and shows the whole constellation Cygnus first time ever at this detail level and deepness. I haven't seen anything like this before. Image spans now 31 x 23 degrees of sky and has 118 individual frames in it. total exposure time is now around 700 hours and the resolution 20.000 x 25.500 pixels. Image it took over a decade to finalize this photo between 2010 and 2021.

The mapped color version  of this mosaic can be seen here, https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2021/12/cygnus-mosaic-gets-large.html

Bang, Bang & Bang
Three large supernova remnants in the same field of view
Click for a large image

Image is in visual palette from emission of an ionized elements, hydrogen (H-alpha), sulfur (S-II) and oxygen (O-III). Red=Hydrogen + 33% sulfur, Green=oxygen and Blue=oxygen + 33% hydrogen to compensate otherwise missing H-beta emission.

ZOOMABLE VERSION



Three Large Supernova Remnants
Click for a large image

Locations and names of the supernova remnants

INFO

Three supernova remnants, two Wolf Rayet stars and a black hole

In the orientation image above, there are three large supernova remnants visible, first the Cygnus Shell W63 , bluish ring at middle left, secondly the large SNR G65.3+5.7 at upper right and the third is a brighter SNR, the Veil nebula at right edge of the image.

Beside three supernova remnants there are two Wolf Rayet stars with outer shell formations. NGC 6888, the Crescent Nebula at center of the image and the WR 134, it can be seen as a blue arch just right from the Crescent Nebula, near the Tulip nebula.

Next to the Tulip Nebula lays a Black hole Cygnus X-1

Constellation Cygnus is an endless source of celestial wonders, both scientifically and aesthetically. For me, as an visual artist, this are of night sky is very inspiring There are endless amount of  amazing shapes and structures, I can spend rest of my life just shooting images from this treasury.

Equipments used

I have used several optical configurations for this mosaic image during the years. Up to 2014 I was using an old Meade LX200 GPS 12" scope, QHY9 astrocam, Canon EF 200mm f1.8 camera optics and baader narrowband filter set. After 2014 I have had 10-micron 1000 equatorial mount, Apogee Alta U16 astro camera, Tokina AT-x 200mm f2.8 camera lens and the Astrodon 50mm square narrowband filter set. I have shot many details with a longer focal length, before 2014 by using Meade 12" scope with reducer and after 2014 Celestron EDGE 11" and reducer. Quider camera has been Lodestar and Lodestar II.