HOME
NGC6914
NGC6914
Emission, Reflection and Dark Nebulae Region in Cygnus

Click here for higher-resolution versions:  40% (1638x1638)  65% (2662x2662) 100% (4096x4096)

 

NGC6914 is the blue reflection nebula near the center of the image; surrounding it are dark nebulae (obscuring dust/gas between us and the colorful stuff) and emission nebulae (the pink stuff, which is hydrogen gas ionized by the energetic young stars being formed in the hydrogen cloud). The reflection nebula is caused by reflections from the bright blue stars, off the surrounding gas.

NGC6914 is about 6000 light years away, making this field of view about 70 light years across at that distance (trigometry does have real-world applications!).

 

Technical Information:

Ha:OIII:SII:L:R:G:B: 570:480:480:570:180:180:240 (a total of 45 hours of light-frame exposure time used in this photo); luminance, red and green exposures were all 15-minute exposures; blue all 20-minute exposures; Ha, SII and OIII were all 30-minute exposures. The luminance layer consists of the combined L images, with Ha and SII data woven in; the red channel has had both Ha and SII woven into it; the green and blue channels had OIII data woven into them.

Equipment: RC Optical Systems 14.5 inch Ritchey-Chretien carbon fiber truss telescope, with ion-milled optics and RCOS field flattener, at about f/9, and an SBIG STX-16803 camera with internal filter wheel (SBIG filter set), guided by an SBIG AO-X, all riding on a Bisque Paramount ME German Equatorial Mount.

Image Acquisition/Camera Control: Maxim DL, controlled with ACP Expert/Scheduler, working in concert with TheSky X.

Processing: All images calibrated (darks, bias and sky flats), aligned and combined in Pixinsight. Color combine in Pixinsight. Some finish work (background neutralization, color calibration, deconvolution and mure noise reduction) done in Pixinsight; some cleanup finish work was done in Photoshop CC.

Location: Data acquired remotely using my equipment located at Sierra Remote Observatories, Auberry, California.

Date: Images taken on many nights in May and June of 2021. Image posted August 4, 2021

Date: Image scale of full-resolution image: 0.56 arcseconds per pixel.

Seeing: Generally good, with individual calibrated luminance frames varying from 1.8 to 2.2 arcsecond FWHM.

CCD Chip temperature: -25C

Copyright 2021 Mark de Regt

hosting forum
Hit Counter