NGC6960, THE VEIL NEBULA on 2024-08-13+14

This photo was taken in Kyle, Texas, under Bortle 5.9 skies, through a 6-inch f/4 Telescope, on a Sky-Watcher EQ6-R mount, with a ZWO ASI533MC PRO color camera. The total image acquisition time is: 12 hrs 25 min 30 sec. The processing was done with PixInsight. [Full Size View] Full size files are very large and can take a minute to download. After downloading the full-size picture to zoom in or out on a computer hold down the Ctrl key and use the scroll mouse button, or you can press the + or - key.

NGC 6960, also named, The Veil Nebula, is a cloud of heated and ionized gas and dust in the constellation Cygnus. It constitutes the visible portions of the Cygnus Loop, a supernova remnant, many parts of which have acquired their own individual names and catalogue identifiers. The source of the supernova was a star 20 times more massive than our Sun, which exploded between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago. At the time of the explosion, the supernova would have appeared brighter than Venus in the sky and was visible in the daytime. The remnants have since expanded to cover an area of the sky roughly 3 degrees in diameter, or 6 times the diameter of the full Moon. The Veil Nebula is located about 2400 light-years from the Earth.

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