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Athough I haven't posted in a while, I have been getting out for observing and imaging. Last month I concentrated on collecting many frames on the Cocoon Nebula IC5146 in Cygnus. THat target has really proved it self to be a difficult one. The first night I took about 2 hrs worth of 5min subs and the second night I added 3 more hours to it. THe cool thing about this nebula is the area of dust that is surrounding it and trailing behind it, blocking out many of the stars in the night sky. I may attempt a widerfield version of this at a darker site with a wider and faster lens to see if I can show more of it and hopefully get some definition in the very faint and brown dusty portions.

Cocoon Nebula, C6 SCT @f6.3, Unmoddified Canon 40D, 5hrs (5min sub exposures) ISO800

THis past weekend I took on another challenge to image another region in Cygnus. The Crescent Nebula, NGC6888 is a small crescent shaped nebula that is energized by the winds of a bright star within it. YOu can see that surrounding it is a large area of Hydrogen Alpha. Typically these HA targets are very difficult to photograph with unmoddified cameras like mine, but the Astronomik CLS filter really came through for me again to make it possible especailly with only 2 hrs worth of 5min exposures @f5 from home under mag 5.5 skies.

Crescent Nebula, SW 80mm @f5 (400mm fl), Unmoddified Canon 40D, 2 hrs (24x5min) ISO 800
A larger verion can be seen here:
http://www.weatherandsky.com/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=1746&g2_imageViewsIndex=3

Back in June I captured a few more images of the Western and Eastern portions of the Veil. THe pics are linked below... sorry I didn't post them earlier. Some of you may have already seen them.

NGC6960 Western Veil + friends
http://www.weatherandsky.com/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=1668&g2_enterAlbum=0

NGC 6992 Eastern Veil
http://www.weatherandsky.com/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=1616&g2_enterAlbum=0

KerryLH