Veil Nebula Supernova Remnant

The glowing arc of the Veil Nebula spans some 110 light years of the summer sky in the constellation of Cygnus. The delicate filamentary structures are caused by an advancing shock front from a supernova as it crashes into the stationary gases of the interstellar medium.  It is estimated the supernova event took place about 8,000 years ago, and involved a star twenty times the mass of the Sun. Before the star exploded, it is hypothesised it expelled a strong stellar wind that excavated a large cavity into the surrounding interstellar gas. As the shock wave from the supernova expands outwards and encounters the walls of this cavity so it forms the nebula’s distinctive structures.

The image shows emission features of Hydrogen (red) and Oxygen (blue) as interstellar gas is swept into and excited by particle collisions at the shock front which is moving at almost 1.5 million kilometres per hour. Bright filaments are produced as the shock wave interacts with a relatively dense cavity wall, whilst fainter structures are generated by regions nearly devoid of material.

Right ascension: 20h 51m 43.06s | Declination: +30° 50' 25.5" | Distance: 1,500 Light Years
Field of view: 234 x 176 arcmin

Camera: QSI 583wsg
Optics: TS Photoline TS60ED F/4.3 APO with Photoline x0.79 reducer
Guiding: Off-axis with Lodestar guider
Filters: Baader Ha (7nm), OIII (8.5nm)
Exposures: Ha 21 x 20 min, OIII 27 x 20min
Total exposure: 16 hours
Image composition: Ha-OIII-OIII RGB colour composite
Scale: 4.2 arcsec/pixel
Image acquired: Over six nights between 1st October 2016 and 4th November 2016.

Image capture with MaxIm DL, FocusMax, ACP; Image reduction with MaxIm DL; Image processing with PixInsight (DBE) and Photoshop CC 2017