The Wizard Nebula is a collection of interstellar gas surrounding the open star cluster, NGC 7380. It sits in the northern constellation of Cepheus at a distance of ~8500 light years. Can you see the wizard just about to cast a spell?
The Eastern Veil Nebula (NGC 6992) in the constellation of Cygnus - part of the “Cygnus Loop” - is a supernova remnant, i.e. an expanding cloud caused by the explosion of a massive star some 1500 light years away. The explosion was seen on Earth about 5000 years ago, but the remnants are too dim to make out with the naked eye nowadays. The whole Cygnus Loop is several times the size of the Moon! My imaging session was cut short by fog, so the result is only suboptimal (less than 90 minutes of usable data only). I will have to return to this area of the sky with better viewing conditions. I used my William Optics GT71 Scope for this with the usual components (0.8x reducer, ZWO ASI294MM main camera, ASI120mm guide camera on WO 50mm guide scope, SkyWatcher HEQ5 Pro Mount, ZWO ASIAir, EAF and EFW) This is my second processing go-around for this object with a different (Forax) color palette in PixInsight, enhanced with some final Photoshop add-ons.
The constellation of Cygnus is a very active and interesting region of the Milky Way. For this image, I focussed on the immediate surroundings of the star Sadr, the center star in the Cygnus “cross”. There is a HII region, known as IC 1318, or Gamma Cygni Nebula, sometimes also called “Butterfly Nebula”. This image is a result of narrowband recording (Ha, SII and OIII wavelengths) with a total of almost 3 hrs exposure time. It was processed with PixInsight and Photoshop, using the “Forax” color palette.
