NGC 6914 and vdB 132 Region in Hα

NGC 6914, vdB 132

These nebulae form the northern part of the γ Cygni nebulae. NGC 6914 is the name of the blue combined emission/reflection nebula around three stars near the center of the image, van den Bergh 132 designates the central one. Most of the other large red emission nebula patches in this image seem to belong to a huge supernova shell located in the next inner spiral arm of our galaxy. They are extremly faint. The nice colors of this attractive region remind on the Rho Ophiuchus Nebula Complex Region.

The red nebulosity emits all of its light in isolated emission lines. The most prominent of those is the Hα line, which was exclusively recorded to obtain the image shown above, displayed here in gray tones. At a wavelength of 656 nm, it is located at the red edge of the visual spectral range, and cannot be not very well perceived by the human eye during nighttime.

NGC 6914 and vdB 132, Wright-Newtonian HαRGB CCD image, where this image is integrated.

Exposure Data

Instrument: 4.9" f/3.8 Wright-Newtonian
F/stop: 3.8
Exposure: 30 x 10 min + 2 min
Camera: ALccd 6c Pro = QHY8pro
Offset/Gain/Temp: 125 / 50% / -10°C
Date: August 20, 2009
Exposure start: 22:35 MESZ
Location: Floridsdorf, Vienna
Conditions: Visual limiting magnitude 4.3 mag, seeing 3/10, temperature 22°C, no wind, no dew
Autoguider: Meade Pictor 216 XT, max. error: 1" (RA) / 1" (Dec);
Enhancement: Basic data reduction, combine, logarithmic curves, noise filtering, star size reduction, background flattening, dynamic range extension, contrast enhancement
Notes: Extremely long Hα exposure series. I trusted the autoguider and let it run unattended until dawn under a mediocre city sky. Stars near the left edge of this image are distorted because of imperfect collimation of the optics.

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