NGC6992 – The Network Nebula
 

NGC6992, known as the Network Nebula, is the eastern portion of the large Veil Nebula. The Veil is the remnant of a supernova - a star that exploded - about 30,000 years ago. It is about 1,600 light years away in the constellation Cygnus. There is also a central portion known as NGC6979, and a western portion designated NGC6960 (no image yet). This image covers about half of the Network Nebula; north is toward the right.

This narrowband image assigns Sulfur-II to the red channel, Hydrogen-alpha to the green channel, and Oxygen-III to the blue channel (this is the same palette used by the Hubble Space Telescope for its false-color images).


NGC6992
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Equipment
 TMB-130SS APO refractor at f/7 on a Losmandy G-11 equatorial mount
SBIG ST-8XM camera
SBIG CFW-10 filter wheel with Astrodon filters
Guiding: 60mm f/5 refractor and ST-402 camera
Imaging and autoguiding with MaxIm DL 4.57
Exposure
Red   (Sulfur-II) 3 hours (6 x 30 min.), unbinned, @ -20°C
Green   (Hydrogen-alpha) 3.5 hours (7 x 30 min.) @-25°C + (2 x 20 min.), unbinned, @ -20°C
Blue   (Oxygen-III) 3 hours (6 x 30 min.), unbinned, @ -20°C
Processing Dark and flat processing in CCDStack
Statistical-combined in CCDStack
Levels and curves, Neat Image, unsharp mask, and color-combine in Photoshop CS2
Date and Location 21, 23, 27, & 28 October 2007
Montpelier, VA    N 37° 49' 12", W 77° 42' 06"