Pickering's Triangle/NGC 6992/NGC6960 200mm Telephot

[Hankmeister3]

A decent capture of the Eastern Veil, Pickering's Triangle, and Witch's Broom with my 1990s Canon 200mm EF-L f/2.8 telephoto. Ran across this image while scrolling through some of my backlog DSO captures out of boredom. Hope you like this widefield view of the Veil Nebula complex. I remember it being a pretty average sky that night, nothing remarkable one way or the other. I wish I could have pulled in more nebulosity on the Pickering's Triangle but it just wasn't happening that evening.

Canon 200mm f/2.8 EF-L telephoto
Canon EOS 80D DSLR unmodified
Piggy-backed on Quattro 8 f/4 fast Newtonian
SW EQ6-R Pro mount (PPEC + Sidereal Rate only)
135 seconds, ISO1600
single-frame, no filters
9/23/19

[helicon]

Nice shot of those nebulae Hank!

[Lady Fraktor]

A good image Hank

[Hankmeister3]

Thanks, Michael. Your encouraging comments are always appreciated.

[Hankmeister3]

Thank you m'Lady Fraktor! I always appreciate your kind words.

BTW, I didn't know you were a Motocross enthusiast. What's your ride? I still engage in NHRA drag racing from time to time in factory stock class both 1/8 and 1/4 mile. Only for fun now, I used to drag race a 350 CID 1971 Chevelle and a 1994 Ford Mustang 5.0L five-speed. Nothing remarkable other than having fun and trying to cut a good light on the starting "tree." I'm even thinking of "racing" our 2013 2.0 L turbo Sonata this coming season at a relatively local 1/8 mile drag strip. I hope to get down into the 8s in the 1/8 mile and 13s in the 1/4 mile. No Motocross or road racing for me, too many curves and down shifts!

[Jockinireland]

That's nicely done.

[Mac]

Great capture Hank... I added this to my every growing list of DSOs to image.

[Hankmeister3]

Thanks, Steve.

Yeah, there's a lot going on in the constellation of Cygnus and this is just one of those busy sky sectors. What's interesting about the Veil Nebula complex is all the individual parts. You can capture them individually or shoot the whole shebang. I imagine some filter work would yield some interesting images and details.

I'm not sure about the cosmic history of this complex as we presently view it. My guess (before I looked up the history on the Internet) was these wispy tendrils are the remnants of a pretty powerful super nova maybe a couple of millennia ago. So before I wrote this reply I did a search and some astronomers/cosmologists are saying the Veil Nebula is about 8000 years old! I would have never guessed it was that old but I supposed if one knows the current expansion rate of the nebula and work backwards, you come up with 8K years. I don't know and I'm not certain if anyone knows for sure what star it was that went super nova to produce the Veil Nebula, but I could be wrong about that, too.

Whatever the real history, it is pretty neat to image. I'm not sure if I've ever seen any of the Veil visually through a telescope but I wonder if some of our visual experts at TSS have ever caught glimpses of the whole complex or not. Now that would be cool. I imagine some of the brighter sections can be viewed on a good clear night. I don't believe I've ever attempted a visual acquisition of any part of the Veil. I'm trying to remember if DonQuixote had visually acquired the Eastern Veil on one of our mutual star safaris, because if he did then I probably eyeballed it. I just can't remember now since we eyeballed a lot of DSOs this summer and fall at a time when I was experiencing a lot of information overload! Heh!

[ic_1101]

Very nice Hank! Amazing for a single exposure, well done.

[Hankmeister3]

Thank you, Alex and JockinIreland, both your responses are appreciated.

I still enjoy single-frame because it's also so much easier in post-production. The overall quality of my capture will never approach that of other astrophotographic members who avail themselves of the latest post-production software tweaks starting with stacking. But I'm okay with that for now and to be honest, I'm basically a lazy retired guy who generally seeks the path of least resistance in my various hobby pursuits anyway. Heh!

I know one can only go so far with single-frame "state-of-the-art" and it makes me that much more dependent on sky quality, but I guess that's where the magic is for me … waiting for excellent skies and then taking the most advantage one can of that "magical" time. Probably because of my personality I kinda like instant gratification and for me, right now, capturing as much "data" or "photons" one can to collate or process into one image sounds like a daunting task to me. Teaching new tricks to an old dog like me exhausts my brain just to think about it, so I totally admire all those other "seasoned members" here who take great delight in the challenges of all the post-production software enhancements they avail themselves of in order to deliver such wonderful images that blow my mind from time to time!

It's just me. Going forward in the next year or two I hope sky conditions are much better than 2019 which IMO was a bust here in central Illinois as compared to 2018. And I understand 2017 delivered even better skies to some here at TSS. And when I get bored with single-frame I'll probably hop on the "capture more data" train.

I am planning on a "vacation" sky safari in the next 10 days or six weeks when the Moon is not a factor so I can be under nice, relatively dark skies. I'm thinking New Mexico or Arizona with the wife who actually enjoys what I do. Plus we just got four inches of snow last night and it's been cold as a w … well, you get the point. What good is being retired if you can't just pick up equipment, load up the car and take a vacation on a virtual whim, right?

Clear skies to all!

[Ken_nneth]

oh so great for one shot, still can't understand how you do it. How much light pollution do you have at site?
Clear Skies

[Hankmeister3]

Thanks, Kenneth.

I have three sites that I generally use located out in the countryside. The Penfield/Middle Fork River & Forest Preserve is, on average, (with respect to dark skies, seeing conditions and transparency) probably the best of the three though the other two have darker skies to the south and southwest. All three are fairly equal with respect to skies overhead around the zenith. However, the latter two sites are also closer to home by about eight to twelve minutes respectively, the south Sydney site being the closest. Interestingly, the best overall night I've ever had was at the Sydney site last year early November. Something like a very strong Bortle 3, Pickering 7 or 8 and very, very nice transparency.

In general, on what I would call a very nice night, all three sites can offer a strong Bortle 3 sky, with seeing conditions around a Pickering 5 to 7 ( a 7 or above would be a very rare night) and average to very good transparency of about a 6 out of 10. All three are a big step up from "urban sky" locations, I admit to that much!

BTW, the Middle Fork River & Forest Preserve Park is a nationally recognized astronomical "dark site."