Astrophotography by Keith B. Quattrocchi


NGC 6960
Supernova Remnant in Cygnus
Narrow Band Image

Copyright 2021
Keith B Quattrocchi and Bray Falls

Image Acquisition Information  
                    
Telescope: 16" RCOS Richey Chretien Telescope (ion milled at f/9) 
Camera: ZWO Full Frame Back Illuminated CMOS ASI 6200 MM
Guiding: Starlight Xpress AO with UltraStar Autoguiding Camera (AO control using maxim DL software).
Filters: Astrodon LRBG, H-alpha, S-II and OIII Filters
Acquisition Programs: NINA, The SkyX, PHD2, PWI4
Processing Programs: PixInsight, RC Astro, CCDStack, Photoshop CS4
Date: Data processed on August 21, 2021.  Data acquisition: July of 2021                             
Time:  8 hours (10 minute exposures) for each of Ha, SII. OIII for a total of 24 hours.  LRGB starfield also obtained.                              

Image Information:  The Western Veil Nebula (NGC 6960) is a striking portion of the much larger Cygnus Loop, the remnant of a supernova explosion.  It is also known as the "Witch's Broom Nebula" for its wispy, broom-like appearance.  It is about 2400 light-years distant and is the remains of a star which was about 20 times the size of our sun.  As it ran out of nuclear fuel it exploded about 20,000 years ago.  

Processing Information  This Ha/SII/OIII images were obtained using  AstroDon filters.  The Ha/S-II/OIII images were batch processed (calibrated, registered, normalized and integrated) in PixInsignt.   Further stretching, high pass filtering and background smoothing was performed with Adobe Photoshop CS/4 and PixInsight.