Cocoon Nebula (IC 5146)

Cocoon Nebula
All Images Copyright Steve Cannistra

Please click here for a medium-sized view (75%).


Position:
RA (J2000): 21h 49m 13s
Dec
(J2000): 47 degrees 09' 59"

Description:
The Cocoon Nebula floats like an island within a sea of dark clouds, which are very apparent in this wide field view of this region.  It is a star forming region that contains three of the major types of nebulosities:  emission, reflection, and absorption.    These three types of gas clouds are responsible for the red, blue, and dark regions shown in the above field of view.  A more detailed but narrow field of view can be seen in an image that I captured in 2008.  The large central star within the Cocoon has blown a hole in the nebula and is likely responsible for exciting the surrounding hydrogen to emit in Ha light.  Please check Rob Gendler's site for more information about this object

Photographic Details:

Date:  August 26, 27, 28, 2016
Scope:  Takahashi FSQ106 at f5 on the Takahashi NJP Mount
Autoguider:  SBIG ST-402 with 60mm guidescope, focal length 227mm
Camera:  Apogee U16M at -20C, with 7 position 50mm square filter wheel (Apogee FW50-7S).  The above image is cropped from the original U16M field of view, to focus on the most detailed portions of the dust clouds in this region.
Filters: 
Baader Ha, and RGB filters
Exposures:  Total exposure 20 hours
Post-processing:  Calibrated, aligned and stacked in Maxim, followed by DDP in ImagesPlus (IP).  Further processing in Photoshop CS (16 bit format)


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