Eastern Veil Nebula NGC 6992 & NGC 6995 in SHO narrowband*

The East traditionally evokes connotations of the exotic and a promise of excitement.  This year the late Summer delivered plenty such opportunity for astrophotography combined with long, warm and clear nights, making for a productive and very enjoyable time.  Furthermore, this being the first year I’ve owned the mono ZWO1600MM-Cool camera, I’m mostly revisiting objects previously imaged with a modded DSLR and as a result am discovering details of hidden interest and beauty within the new images; on this occasion the object of my desire was the Eastern Veil Nebula in the Cygnus constellation.

Desperate to start re-imaging suitable targets with the ZWO camera, I briefly flirted with the Eastern Veil on the morning of the summer solstice this year.  But with limited darkness of any sort and coming just before dawn, imaging time was very limited.  I was still pleased with the result which bode well for longer, darker night conditions with the potential for extended imaging time.  In June I was only able to capture 18 minutes of Ha and 9 minutes each of OII and SII wavelengths, compared this time with a whopping 30 minutes for each!  OK it’s still quite short and for a standard CCD camera might only amount to one or two subs but given the unique sensitivity of the ZWO1600 operating at -20^oC – itself a game changer in so many ways – the additional integration time achieved resulted in much more detailed and dramatic images than before.

Eastern Veil Nebula in Ha-OIII BiColour*

For the moment I’m very pleased with the outcome but it’s obvious that greater imaging time holds the prospect of even better images – although such improvements are likely to be less dramatic and more incremental in nature.  Due to practical limitations at this site I’m limited to about 2-hours dedicated imaging time each side of the Meridian and will only be able to increase the integration time beyond this barrier by using plate solving, thus enabling meridian flips during a session or cumulative imaging of the same object over different nights.  With plenty to learn and enjoy with the ZWO1600 camera, plus Orion already reappearing over the eastern horizon – my personal favourite, this is unlikely to occur before next year.  In the meantime, the Eastern Veil points towards a very promising future – Watch This Space!

 The Eastern Veil Nebula detail in Ha-OIII BiColour*

The Bat Nebula IC 1340 detail in Ha-OIII Bicolour*