June 24, 2008

In Today's One Minute Astronomer...

The Veil Nebula

The Veil Nebula is a sprawling supernova remnant in Cygnus and is one of the most intricate and intrinsically beautiful objects in our galaxy. Here's how to see it.

The Basics

• The Veil Nebula is the shattered remains of two stars that exploded 18,000 and 5,000 years ago. The stars were only 2,500 light-years away, so each likely appeared as bright as the crescent moon in the skies of our prehistoric ancestors (and probably scared the living heck out of them).

• The Veil is also called the Cygnus Loop, which consists of three structures that span an impressive 3.5 degrees across the sky… roughly 7x the diameter of the full moon. Find it a few degrees off the star epsilon Cygni… check your star map.

• The eastern section of the nebula, also called NGC 6992, is the brightest and easiest to see. You can spot it in 7x50 binoculars if you have extremely dark sky.

The Veil Nebula (also called the Cygnus Loop)

A Deeper Look

• The fainter western section of the nebula is cataloged as NGC 6960. Though harder to see, this section is set against the lovely 4th magnitude foreground star 52 Cygni.

• To see the Veil through a telescope, a light-pollution filter is a huge help. Use your low power eyepiece. You'll only see one section at a time, especially in scopes with longer focal ratio.

• The delicate lacework in the Veil Nebula becomes visible in 8” or larger telescopes with an OIII filter. Use higher magnification to see the fine structure. You can spend all night just examining this wonder.

Good To Know

The bright optical filaments in the Veil Nebula are caused by the supernova blast wave colliding with interstellar clouds. As the shock wave slows down, it loses energy by emitting visible light.

Personal View

This is on my top-10 list every summer, and I love to linger over it. From an urban backyard, I've seen the two brightest sections, one at a time, with an 8” SCT and 2” eyepiece. But in city skies, a special light-pollution filter is essential.

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