Veil Nebula

Object Type: Nebula
Top image (Pickering's Triangle) - AP 5" Refractor, 180 min; Bottom image (full Cygnus Loop) - Orion APO 80mm, 300 min mosaic.

The Veil Nebula is the spectacular, lacy remnant of a supernova in Cygnus - the debris of a star roughly 20 times the Sun's mass that exploded between about 10,000 and 20,000 years ago. Also called the Cygnus Loop, it spans some 3 degrees of sky (about six full-moon diameters) and lies around 2,400 light-years away. William Herschel discovered parts of it in 1784. The tangled filaments glow as the still-expanding blast wave plows into interstellar gas. Its named sections include the Western Veil (near the star 52 Cygni), the Eastern Veil, and the detached knot called Pickering's Triangle.