Description: The Veil Nebula is part of the Cygnus Loop which comprises several NGC objects. Shown here is NGC 6992 in the Eastern Veil. The Veil Nebula is a faint supernova remnant that exploded some 5000 years ago, and since then it has been expanding on the sky to cover some 3 degrees. Its fine and intrincated filaments are attributed to a thin shock wave propagating into space and seen edge-on.

This image was obtained and processed by members of the IAC astrophotography group (A. Oscoz, D. López, P. Rodríguez-Gil and L. Chinarro).

Credit: Daniel López (IAC).

Date: 2009.

Technical information:
Telescope: 2.5-m Isaac Newton Telescope.
Instrument: Wide Field Camera.
Detector: EEV.
Filters and exposure times: It is a three-colour composite made from data collected using filters to isolate the light emitted by hydrogen alpha (H-alpha), doubly ionised oxygen (OIII) and ionised sulfur (SII) atoms, and coded in the image as red, green and blue respectively.

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