A Cygnus emission shell shaped by stellar winds, with oxygen structure glowing through the surrounding hydrogen.
This frame remains part of the Lost Photons archive.
- What am I looking at?
- The Crescent Nebula is a shell of gas blown by a Wolf-Rayet star colliding with slower material it ejected earlier.
- How far away is it?
- About 5,000 light-years away.
- Where is it in the sky?
- In Cygnus, in the summer Milky Way near the star Sadr.
- Why does it matter?
- Shows the violent winds of a massive star sculpting its surroundings.
- When is the best time to photograph it?
- Summer when Cygnus is overhead.
Capture summary
Nebula in Cygnus
Ha and OIII
Ha and OIII
Summer target / wide composition
- Chroma 36mm Ha 5nm 4h 5m 49 x 300s
- Chroma 36mm Oiii 5nm 7h 84 x 300s
- Totals 11h 5m
Same target, different years.
Older revisions stay in the archive so you can see how the target changed with different equipment, processing, and experience.
When to image this target
Nebula in Cygnus; best planned for June through August from New Jersey.
Summer targets often improve later at night as the Milky Way climbs higher.
Assumes a New Jersey backyard horizon and evening imaging.
Emission nebulae are good candidates for narrowband filters; reflection nebulae prefer darker skies.
NGC 6888 is listed here in Cygnus.
Current frame: Narrowband / Ha and OIII.
Live altitude, moon, and filter guidance
Calculating target altitude and moon context.
Use the full planner to enter a ZIP code, choose a date, and compare the target from your sky.
Based on the current time.
Green marks usable dark-sky altitude.
Next upper transit.
Approximate horizon crossing.
Moon phase and altitude.
Acquisition & processing notes
Filter channels, integration times, and capture dates for this frame.
- Chroma 36mm Ha 5nm 49 x 300s, 4h 5m
- Chroma 36mm Oiii 5nm 84 x 300s, 7h
- Totals 11h 5m
How I captured this
| Channel | Frames | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Chroma 36mm Ha 5nm | 49 x 300s | 4h 5m |
| Chroma 36mm Oiii 5nm | 84 x 300s | 7h |
| Totals | — | 11h 5m |
- Equipment used
- From my current rig
- Mount
- iOptron CEM60
- Telescope
- Explore Scientific FCD100 127mm Carbon Fiber Triplet APO
- Camera
- ZWO ASI2600MM Pro
- Filters
- Chroma 36mm Ha, OIII, SII, and LRGB (ZWO EFW 7×36mm)
- Focuser / rotator
- MoonLite NiteCrawler
- Reducer
- Starizona Apex ED 0.65×
- Guiding
- ZWO off-axis guider + ASI290MM Mini
- Control / power
- PrimaLuceLab Eagle 4S, Powerwerx PSU, Bioenno field battery, and MEGAbox
