Image of the Month
NGC-6960, the western arc of the Veil Nebula. This diffuse nebula is a supernova remnant, the remains of a titanic explosion of a star which took place more then 45,000 years ago. It and the eastern arc (NGC-6992, 2.5 degrees WSW) are still expanding from this explosion, forming an immense bubble of gas that is expanding outward at a rate of more than 45 miles per second. The yellowish star in this image is 52 Cygni, which is a double star. NGC-6960 lies approximately 1500 light years from Earth.
This image, acquired on July 29, 2014, is a 1 hour integration of 6 minute exposures through the Celestron C-11 at f/2 using the HyperStar III imaging system and the Starlight Express SXVR-H694C color CCD camera operating at -10 degrees below ambient temperature and binned 1 X 1.Guided, captured & combined using Maxim DL5 Pro. Post processed using PhotoShop CS2, Gradient XTerminator, StarShrink, Carboni's Astro Tools and NoiseWare.
NGC-6960 Western Veil
