The Cocoon Nebula, also designated Sharpless 125, is a diffuse nebula in the constellation Cygnus, the Swan. The nebulosity is about 3,300 light years away, and 15 light years across.
The red is ionized hydrogen gas excited by newly forming stars in the nebula. surrounding this is dust faintly illuminated by blue light from these stars. The bright star near the center estimated to be only a few hundred thousand years old. It is slowly carving a cavity in the dark cloud of dust and gas extending toward the upper-right.
| Exposure |
• 14½ hours (87 X 10 minutes) @ -20°C over 4 nights • Dusk flats • Camera position angle: 0° |
| Processing |
• With PixInsight: ☞ Calibrate, star-align, and integrate subframes ☞ Background neutralization ☞ Histogram transformation ☞ Shrink stars ☞ Star color saturation • Noise reduction with Topaz DeNoise AI • Final tweaking and sizing in Photoshop CS6 |
| Date and Location |
• 2021: Oct. 27, Oct. 31, Nov. 4, Nov. 5 • Louisa County, Virginia, USA |
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Equipment |
• TMB-130SS APO refractor @ f/7 on an A-P 1200 mount • ZWO ASI-1600MC Pro color camera • Guided with a ZWO ASI-120M camera on a 60mm f/5 scope • Imaging and autoguiding with MaxIm DL 6.20 • Automated image acquisition with ACP Observatory Control |
Updated May 23, 2023