ScienceDownEast - ScienceDownEast Astrophotography - NGC 6960 Veil Nebula (Latest images)

NGC 6992 Eastern Veil Nebula (NGC 6960 Veil Nebula)

Sat, 22 Nov 2025 19:35:29 -0400

Click on the image to view it at full resolution, then click again for actual size.

The Eastern Veil Nebula (NGC 6992/6995, with adjacent filaments cataloged as IC 1340) is a bright, richly structured portion of the larger Veil Nebula supernova remnant in Cygnus. It marks part of the shock front from a massive star that exploded thousands of years ago, sending a blast wave plowing through the surrounding interstellar medium. Seen edge-on, the Eastern Veil appears as delicately woven filaments and curtains of gas, with especially strong O III and Hα emission tracing the expanding shock.

At an estimated distance of about ~2,400 light-years in the Orion–Cygnus arm of the Milky Way (Veil Nebula overview), the entire remnant spans roughly 100 light-years across, but individual arcs like NGC 6992 cover only a fraction of that on the sky. Narrowband filters isolating O III and Hα are especially effective on this target, helping the glowing shock fronts stand out sharply against the dense star field of Cygnus and revealing the intricate, lace-like structure of the remnant. Look for NGC 6992 just east of the brighter Western Veil (NGC 6960, the “Witch’s Broom”), near the rich Milky Way band running through Cygnus. [generated by ChatGPT]

Total image time was 2 hour and 40 minutes.

Moon Phase

New Moon

Exposure

8 x 20 min

Gain

100

Camera

ToupTek ATR2600C [6224 × 4168]

Optics

120mm Sky-Watcher Esprit on a Proxisky UMi20S Strain Wave mount

Guiding

ToupTek GPM462M using PHD2 with a 400mm guide scope. Average 15-min sub GuideRMS ranged from 0.56 to 0.89 using 0.5s exposures.

Controller

KStars on MeLe Quieter 4C

Filter

Triad Quad Ultra (strong Hα / O III response for emission nebulae and supernova remnants)

Location

St. Croix Observatory, Nova Scotia.

Date

2025-11-20

Processing

Processed in PixInsight.

PixInsight Processing

WeightedBatchPreprocessing Script

BlurXTerminator

GraXpert

Screen Stretch and Histogram Transformation

NoiseXTerminator

StarXTerminator

Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch on both the stars and starless images

HDRMultiScaleTransform on the Starless image (to bring out bright filaments and shock fronts)

PixelMath to recombine the images

CurveTransformation

Date: November 22, 2025

Eastern + Western Veil Nebula (NGC 6960 Veil Nebula)

Fri, 12 Sep 2025 16:56:42 -0300

The Eastern Veil Nebula (NGC 6992) above and Western Veil Nebulae (NGC 6960) below are emission nebulae in the constellation Cygnus. It constitutes the visible portions of the Cygnus Loop, a supernova remnant, many portions of which have acquired their own individual names and catalogue identifiers.This 8 panel mosaic image taken with the moon in the sky (just past full moon) with the Triad Ultra Quad Narrow-Band filter, which permitted shooting from with light-polluted suburbia.

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Exposure

8 panels x 10 @600 sec (13.3 hours)

Gain

100

Camera

ATR2600C [6224 x 4168]

Optics

120mm Skywatcher Esprit 840 mm focal length, on a Proxisky UMi20S Strain Wave mount

Guiding

ToupTek GPM462M using Phd2 on an 60x400mm Guide scope

Controller

Kstars on MeLe Quieter 4C running Ubuntu 24.04

Filter

Triad Ultra Quad-Band Narrowband Filter

Location

Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.

Date

2025-09-09 => 2025-09-11

PixInsight Processing

WeightedBatchPreprocessing Script

Dynamic Crop

Automatic Background Extractor

Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch

Date: September 12, 2025

NGC_6960 Western Veil Aug. 27, 2020 (NGC 6960 Veil Nebula)

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 17:50:04 -0300

The Western Veil Nebulae (NGC 6960) is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus. It constitutes the visible portions of the Cygnus Loop, a supernova remnant, many portions of which have acquired their own individual names and catalogue identifiers.This image taken without the moon in the sky (just past new moon) with the Triad Ultra Quad Narrow-Band filter, which permitted shooting from with light-polluted suburbia.
For the 3rd time, this image was processed entirely in PixInsight, based on the instructions in a "PixInsight for Newbies Workshop" by Ron Brecher and Warren Keller.

Exposure

75@600 sec (12.5 hours)

ISO

800

Camera

Nikon Z7 [8856 x 5504]

Optics

Skywatcher Esprit 120mm Refractor, 840 mm focal length

Filter

Radian Triad Ultra Quad-Band Narrowband Filter

Guiding

Phd2 using a ZWO 224MC on an Orion 60x240mm Guide scope

Controller

Images taken using Kstars on an Odroid-N2 (Raspberry Pi clone)

Location

Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.

Date

2020-08-27

PixInsight Processing

WeightedBatchPreprocessing Script

Dynamic Crop

Automatic Background Extractor

ColourCalibration (both saturation and hue)

MultiscaleLinearTransform

HistogramTransform

CurvesTransformation

LocalHistogramEquilization

ColourProfile

Date: March 26, 2025

NGC_6960 Western Veil Aug. 22, 2020 (NGC 6960 Veil Nebula)

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 17:50:04 -0300

The Western Veil Nebulae (NGC 6960) is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus. It constitutes the visible portions of the Cygnus Loop, a supernova remnant, many portions of which have acquired their own individual names and catalogue identifiers.This image taken without the moon in the sky (just past new moon) with the Triad Ultra Quad Narrow-Band filter, which permitted shooting from with light-polluted suburbia.
For the 2nd time, this image was processed entirely in PixInsight, based on the instructions in a "PixInsight for Newbies Workshop" by Ron Brecher and Warren Keller.

Exposure

50@600 sec (8.3 hours)

ISO

800

Camera

Nikon Z7 [8856 x 5504]

Optics

Skywatcher Esprit 120mm Refractor, 840 mm focal length

Filter

Radian Triad Ultra Quad-Band Narrowband Filter

Guiding

Phd2 using a ZWO 224MC on an Orion 60x240mm Guide scope

Controller

Images taken using Kstars on an Odroid-N2 (Raspberry Pi clone)

Location

Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.

Date

2020-08-22

PixInsight Processing

WeightedBatchPreprocessing Script

Dynamic Crop

Automatic Background Extractor

ColourCalibration (both saturation and hue)

MultiscaleLinearTransform

HistogramTransform

CurvesTransformation

LocalHistogramEquilization

ColourProfile

Date: March 26, 2025

NGC_6960 Western Veil Aug. 20, 2020 (NGC 6960 Veil Nebula)

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 17:50:04 -0300

The Western Veil Nebulae (NGC 6960) is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus. It constitutes the visible portions of the Cygnus Loop, a supernova remnant, many portions of which have acquired their own individual names and catalogue identifiers.This image taken without the moon in the sky (just past new moon) with the Triad Ultra Quad Narrow-Band filter, which permitted shooting from with light-polluted suburbia.
For the 1st time, this image was processed entirely in PixInsight, based on the instructions in a "PixInsight for Newbies Workshop" by Ron Brecher and Warren Keller.
[Edit: this image has been replaced with one with less green]

Exposure	36@600 sec (6 hours)
ISO	800
Camera	Nikon Z7 [8856 x 5504]
Optics	Skywatcher Esprit 120mm Refractor, 840 mm focal length
Filter	Radian Triad Ultra Quad-Band Narrowband Filter
Guiding	Phd2 using a ZWO 224MC on an Orion 60x240mm Guide scope
Controller	Images taken using Kstars on an Odroid-N2 (Raspberry Pi clone)
Location	Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.
Date	2020-08-20
Processing	Processed in PixInsight: WeightedBatchPreprocessing Script, Dynamic Crop, Automatic Background Extractor, ColourCalibration, MultiscaleLinearTransform, HistogramTransform, CurvesTransformation, LocalHistogramEquilization and ColourProfile.

Date: March 26, 2025

Veil Nebula Panorama Aug. 5, 2020 (NGC 6960 Veil Nebula)

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 17:50:04 -0300

4@7x10 min exposure mosaic with data from Aug. 5, 2020.

The Eastern and Western Veil Nebulae (NGC 6995 and 6960) is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus. It constitutes the visible portions of the Cygnus Loop, a supernova remnant, many portions of which have acquired their own individual names and catalogue identifiers.This image taken while the moon was between 94% illuminated with the Triad Ultra Quad Narrow-Band filter, which permitted shooting from with light-polluted suburbia.
This image was processed without proper background normalization, hence the visible artifacts between images. Combined into a single composite image using Photoshop, as I couldn't figure out how to do it successfully in PixInsight or MS Image Composite Editor.

Exposure	4@7*600 sec
ISO	800
Camera	Nikon Z7 [8856 x 5504]
Optics	Skywatcher Esprit 120mm Refractor, 840 mm focal length
Filter	Radian Triad Ultra Quad-Band Narrowband Filter
Guiding	Phd2 using a ZWO 224MC on an Orion 60x240mm Guide scope
Controller	Mosaic images taken using the mosaic generator in the scheduler of Kstars on an Odroid-N2 (Raspberry Pi clone)
Location	Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.
Date	2020-08-02
Processing	Processed in PixInsight and Lightroom.

Date: March 26, 2025

IC6960 Western Veil Nebula (NGC 6960 Veil Nebula)

Wed, 17 Jun 2020 16:14:32 -0300

The Veil Nebula (IC6960) 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. The source supernova was a star 20 times more massive than the Sun, and it exploded between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago. The remnants have since expanded to cover an area of the sky roughly 3 degrees in diameter (about 6 times the diameter, and 36 times the area, of the full Moon). About 2400 light-years from earth.

A total of 50 min. exposure.

Exposure	10*300 sec
ISO	800
Camera	Nikon Z7 [8856 x 5504]
Optics	Skywatcher Esprit 120mm Refractor
Filter	Radian Triad Ultra Quad-Band Narrowband Filter
Location	Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.
Date	2020-06-17
Processing	Processed in PixInsight and Lightroom.

Date: March 26, 2025