Two parts of the Veil Nebula
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Two recently processed images are presented here. The images were
obtained with a Takahashi FSQ-106N and Orion SSPro camera at the Blue
Mountain Vista Observatory on September 5, 2010.

(1) Eastern Veil Nebula, IC 1340, (30 min exposure)
http://www.physics.drexel.edu/~steinberg/astro/nebulae/eastern%20veil-6x5min-ddp.jpg
and
(2) Western Veil Nebula, NGC 6960, (90 min exposure)
http://www.physics.drexel.edu/~steinberg/astro/nebulae/western%20veil-18x5min-ddp.jpg

These lovely nebulae in Cygnus are separate pieces of a single supernova
remnant. The entire nebula is roughly circular and about 3 degrees in
diameter as shown in an older image taken from suburban Philadelphia
with a 300mm Nikon lens:
http://www.physics.drexel.edu/~steinberg/astro/Nikon_lenses/veil%20nebula-22x2min-300mm_Nikon.jpg

The Veil Nebula supernova explosion is thought to have occurred between
5 and 10 thousand years ago and was only about 1500 light years distant,
about 4 times closer than the Crab Nebula explosion, observed in China
in the year 1054 at about the brightness of Venus. Assuming equal
intrinsic luminosities for the two supernovae, the Veil supernova would
have had a brightness 16 times that of Venus, hence a magnitude of about -7.

Best,
Dick

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Takahashi FSQ-106N - FL528mm - Paramount ME - Orion StarShoot Pro V1 -
3.05 arcsec/pixel - Blue Mountain Vista Observatory (New Ringgold PA) -
acquisition and processing: MaxIm DL 5.10 - automation: CCD Commander -
5 minute guided subexposures