Astral Imaging at Dogwood Ridge Observatory

Latitude: 37°48'51.0" N"
Longitude:78°23'41.0"W
Scottsville, Virginia 24590

(click on thumbnails to go to that image's page)

This object is so large (six times the diameter of the Full Moon) that to earlier observers its brighter parts appeared as a number of distinct diffuse nebulae, and were assigned e.g. separate NGC numbers, NGC 6960, NGC 6979, NGC 6992, and NGC 6995; fainter extensions have additional catalog identities: An extension of Northern part NGC 6979 got the designation NGC 6974, and an extension of southwestern NGC 6995 was cataloged as IC 1340. Already William Herschel had them as separate objects: H 2.206 = NGC 6979, H 5.14 = NGC 6992/95, H 5.15 = NGC 6960. Faint luminous material, not cataloged in NGC or IC, can be found throughout the object's extension.

Despite its overall brightness of about mag 5, this object is only visible to the naked eye under exceptionally good viewing conditions, because its light is distributed over the object's large size.

Hydrogen Alpha data collected from July 15 - 16, 2008. Repositioned for optimal guide star. Each frame is 20 minutes with a total of 24 frames used giving a total of 8 hours. Cooler temperature is -15C and full 1X1 binning. Darks and flats applied. Data acquired using MaxImDl/CCD V5RC1. Processed and deconvolution using CCDStack. Levels and curves adjusted using Photoshop CS3.