NGC 6888, the Crescent Nebula in Cygnus. This is just a portion of the remnant of a massive star that blew itself apart. A tough object to image and process: the triangle of neighboring bright stars is overexposed, saturating pixels on the chip, leading to bleeding and apparent bloating. But look at all the fainter, field stars: they're almost on top of one another!
IC5146, the Cocoon Nebula in Cygnus. This bright knot of dust and gas lies at the end of the Caterpillar Nebula, a 2°-long finger of obscuring dust to the west. Dust even reduces the number of stars seen around the Cocoon itself. Instead of butterflies emerging, newborn stars are to some day shine amidst the dust and gas. Reminds you of M20, the Trifid Nebula, doesn't it?
NGC 6781, Planetary Nebula in Aquila. Rather large and bright, its uneven illumination is very apparent in this image. A medium-sized, dying star is puffing off outer layers of hydrogen, fluorescent glows in blue and red, powered by ultraviolet radiation from the hot remains of the central star. A ghostly apparition in a pretty field of stars...
NGC's 6960, 6974, 6979, 6992 and 6995, better known as the Veil Nebula in Cygnus. This supernova remnant is far too large for a single CCD image, spanning almost 3° of sky. This is but a tiny snippet of the northeast portion of the Veil, designated by the latter two numbers. I’m astounded at the wispy detail visible here. When I get back home, I ought to try for a mosaic. In the meantime, I’ll work on the combining the color images I brought on CD-ROM.
P.S. We’re here and settled-in in Hamilton, New Zealand. We've had a couple of clear nights so far, and I've been outside with my planisphere. Those tiny little lines on the wheel actually stretch across a whole bunch of sky! At times, I feel like I'm in Dobson's hole: the Scorpion's stinger stars pass right overhead, so what's supposed to be down on the horizon is at a neck-straining altitude. Mars is lurking about confusing things further. But I'm making progress with the southern constellations. The Southern Cross is unmistakable and is guaranteed to get you oriented correctly. It is circumpolar here, never setting below the horizon. It really does look like the hour hand on a clock as it swings through the night around the south celestial pole. My side yard is reasonably dark, and I can see well to the south and southeast if I walk around the trees. But the night-sounds sure are different. One early morning, after something growled at me for the third time, I decided I'd learned enough of the sky for one session!
For cloudy nights, I’m pretty well set-up with a local Internet service provider. Drop me a note at d.miller@paradise.net.nz. The account comes with web-page disk space, which I’ve started filling up with this issue of Moondark. So look for more “Moondarks-Down-Under,” starting with one on Mercury’s transit of the Sun next month. Cheers!
Moondark is written by Doug Miller and published on the web, in the Delmarva Star Gazers'Star Gazer News and in the Delaware Astronomical Society's FOCUS. Please address comments and suggestions to dmiller@udel.edu. This document was last revised on 26 September '99. All text and images copyright © 1999 Douglas C. Miller, All Rights Reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without prior permission.
