Astro Anarchy: February 2025

Thursday, February 6, 2025

Pickering's Triangle, Resurrection

This is not exactly a new image of Pickering's Triangle, but it is a completely new revision of it. I have photographed this complex-looking region of the Veil Nebula supernova remnant in Cygnus multiple times over the decades. In this latest revision, I have gathered all my exposures of the target and combined them into a new, most detailed version yet.

PICKERING'S TRIANGLE RESURRECTION
Click for a full size, 2700x2300 pixels

A mapped color image from a light emitted by an ionized elements,
sulfur=red, hydrogen=green and oxygen=blue

A Full Resolution Detail
Click for a full size, 2000x2000 pixels

Pickering's Triangle in Visual Colors

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Visual color version of Sh2-115 glows mostly in red from a light emitted by an ionized elements,
sulfur=red, hydrogen=red and oxygen=blue, this combination is very close to a natural color palette

Pickering's Triangle in a Large Context

Click for a full size, 2500x2500 pixels

The Pickering's Triangle can be seen at upper left.

Pickering's Triangle even a Large Context in Cygnus

Click for a full size, 4000x5000 pixels (27Mb)

This massive mosaic, composed of over 300 panels and around 700 hours of exposure time, showcases the entire constellation of Cygnus, the Swan. The Veil Nebula supernova remnant, including Pickering's Triangle, is visible in the lower right area, slightly off-center. Additionally, two more supernova remnants appear in the image: G65.2+5.7 SNR in the upper right corner and W63, located slightly left of center, seen as a bluish ring formation.
Link to the my blog post about this massive photo:
https://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2021/12/cygnus-mosaic-gets-large.html

Technical Info

This new revision of Pickering's Triangle has a cumulative exposure time of approximately 70 hours. I have compiled all the long focal length data I captured over the years into this single deep image. Various optical configurations and focal lengths were used during this time.

Some of the data was captured using my old MEADE LX200 GPS with a 0.63 focal reducer, a QHY9 camera, and a Baader narrowband filter set. Data from 2015 to 2023 was acquired with a Celestron EDGE HD 11" telescope, an Apogee Alta U16 camera, and an Astrodon narrowband filter set. The most recent data, captured in 2024, was taken with a Celestron EDGE HD 14" telescope, an Apogee Alta U9000M camera, and an Astrodon narrowband filter set. There is also some dimm background data shot with Tokina AT-x 300mm f2.8 camera optics.