This image is an ongoing project by Chris Callaway, created using data obtained in October and November 2023 and November 2024. It is a four panel mosaic with each panel comprising of 2 hrs of Ha and 2 hrs of Oiii data. Chris intends to add an additional 2 hrs of data per panel each year to see how the image evolves. Equipment used was a Takahashi 106 telescope, Paramount MyT mount and an Atik 16200 camera with Chroma filters. The mosaic was created in Astro Pixel Processor with further processing using PixInsight and Photoshop. Image Credit: Chris Callaway.
Chris Callaway captured this image of the Veil Nebula from Saint Pierre D'Albigny in France in September 2024. The image comprises 60 x 120 second exposures taken using an Altair Hypercam 26C through a Redcat 51 telescope. Image Credit: Chris Callaway.
The following image of the Veil Nebula is a 4 panel mosaic in Hα and OIII taken in October and November 2023 by Chris Callaway. Each panel comprises 1 hour of Hα and 1 hour of OIII data. Equipment was a Takahashi 106 telescope, the camera was an Atik 16200 with Atik filter wheel and Chroma filters, the mount was a Paramount MyT. The images were stacked in APP with further processing taking place in Pixinsight and Photoshop. Image Credit: Chris Callaway.
This image of part of the Western Veil Nebula was captured by Peter Branson between June 15th and 25th 2023 and comprises 2 separate images of 19x200 seconds and 17x200 seconds respectively. The camera used was a ZWO ASI533 cooled colour camera together with a TS Optics Photoline f7 telescope with a Hutech IDAS light pollution filter and field flattener attached mounted on an NEQ6 mount. A filter wheel fitted with LRGBHa filters was used to capture just the L (Luminance) component. The two sets of images were stacked separately and then combined in Nebulosity, then PixInsight was used to remove background gradients and noise, and some further post-processing including using levels and curves. Image Credit: Peter Branson.
This image of The Eastern Veil Nebula was captured by Peter Branson on the 8th and 10th of June 2022 and comprises two separate images of 27x120seconds (left half) and 34x120seconds (right half) respectively. The camera used was a ZWO ASI533 cooled colour camera together with a TS Optics Photoline f7 telescope with a Hutech IDAS light pollution filter and field flattener attached and mounted on an NEQ6 mount. A filter wheel fitted with LRGBHa filters was used to capture just the L (Luminance) component. The images were stacked in Nebulosity, then PixInsight was used to remove background gradients and noise and some further post-processing including levels and curves. The two separate square frame images were combined in Microsoft Images Composite Editor (ICE). Peter says - "I'm trying to get a composite image of the whole of the Veil Nebula by creating a mosaic of many separate images. This was just the start of the process".
Image Credit: Peter Branson.
This image was created from data taken by Chris Callaway on 31 Aug and 01 Sept 2019 from Coalville. The image comprised 11 x 10min subs each of Ha and OIII using a Takahashi 106, the camera was an Atik 16200 with Atik filter wheel and filters, the mount was a Paramount MyT. The image was stacked in Astroart, PixInsight was used for Dynamic Background Extraction and SC Noise Reduction with further processing taking place in Photoshop. Ha was assigned to the red channel with OIII being used for both the green and blue channels. Image Credit: Chris Callaway.
This image was taken by Chris Callaway on 23-24 Aug 2019 from Coalville. It was his first serious delve into narrow band imaging. The image comprised 6 x 10min subs each of Ha and OIII using a Takahashi 106, the camera was an Atik 16200 with Atik filter wheel and filters, the mount was a Paramount MyT. The image was stacked in Astroart, PixInsight was used for Dynamic Background Extraction with further processing taking place in Photoshop. Ha was assigned to the red channel with OIII being used for both the green and blue channels. Image Credit: Chris Callaway.
This image of the Western Veil (NGC 6960) was taken by Chris Callaway on the 10th August 2018 using a Takahashi 106ED and ZWO 1600M camera with Baader HaRGB filters. Ha was 6 x 4 minutes and RGB 4 x 4 minutes each. The raw data, including flats and darks, was processed using Astrobin 6 with further processing in Photoshop. Image Credit: Chris Callaway.
This image of the Veil Nebula was captured by Steven Chambers on the 15th July 2018. Exposure details are on the image. The brightest star in the image at the top is Gienah (Epsilon Cygni). Image Credit: Steven Chambers.
Adrian Brown captured this image of the Eastern Veil Nebula (Caldwell 33/NGC 6992) in July 2008. The data for this image consists of nine 20 minute exposures with an Astronomik 6nm Hydrogen-Alpha filter and six 20 minute exposures with an Astronomik 13nm Oxygen-III filter. Adrian used a Skywatcher 80ED refractor, William Optics 0.8x focal reducer, and an Atik ATK16HR CCD camera. Maxim DL was used to calibrate (bias and flat-field) and stack the raw images. The stacked hydrogen-alpha and oxygen-III images were then processed in Photoshop using Levels and Curves. A light Gaussian Blur filter was used to smooth noise in the dimmest parts of the images. To create the colour image Adrian used Adobe Photoshop to assign the hydrogen-alpha data to the red channel, the oxygen III data to the green channel and the blue channel was created from the oxygen III data + 20% of the hydrogen-alpha data to simulate the hydrogen-beta line. Here is a link which documents the reasoning behind this technique for creating tri-colour images from halpha and [OIII] data
sets: http://www.narrowbandimaging.com/synthetic_rgb_page.htm. Image Credit: Adrian Brown.
This image of the Western Veil Nebula (Caldwell 34/NGC 6960) was taken by Adrian Brown during the summer of 2007. It is a false colour image, created from four 30 minute exposures via a 6nm hydrogen-alpha filter and one 30 minute exposure via a 13nm Oxygen-III filter. The hydrogen-alpha image is assigned to the red channel and the oxygen III image is assigned to the blue channel. A synthetic green channel was created in Photoshop using the Astronomy Tools plug-in. An ATK16HR CCD camera and Skywatcher 80EDPro refractor were used to capture the exposures. The bright star at the centre of the image is 52 Cygni. Image Credit: Adrian Brown.
Adrian Brown took the following image of the Veil Nebula in Cygnus on the night of the 3rd-4th September 2005. The imaging equipment was a Canon 300D DSLR camera with a 200mm focal length lens and a Hutech LPS light pollution filter, piggy-backed on top of a Celestron C11 SCT which was used to autoguide the mount. The raw exposures were taken at ISO 400 to help suppress the buildup of noise. The image is a composite of six 9 minute exposures. The images were stacked and dark frame calibrated with Maxim DL 4.11 and then further processing was done in Adobe Photoshop via the Curves and Levels tools. Adrian also used a Photoshop plugin called GradientXTerminator to fix light pollution gradients in the picture's backgrounds. The leftmost (eastern) filament of nebulosity is Caldwell 33 (NGC 6992/NGC 6995), the central patch is NGC 6979, while the rightmost (western) filament is Caldwell 34 (NGC 6960). The bright star superimposed on the Western Veil is 52 Cygni. Image Credit: Adrian Brown.
Adrian Brown produced the following image of the eastern section of the Veil Nebula (Caldwell 33 - NGC 6992/NGC 6995) in Cygnus in July 2005. He used a Skywatcher EvoStar 80ED refractor with an ATK-2HS camera, and an Orion SkyGlow light pollution filter. The image is a stacked composite of six, ten minute exposures. Image Credit: Adrian Brown.