The Veil Nebula in the constellation of Cygnus, the Swan is one of the most beautiful and interesting objects in the sky. Deep sky astrophotography using long exposures on film or moderately long exposures with CCD cameras reveal  inspiring details of the remnants of this ancient supernova explosion.

Catalog number NGC 6992, the eastern portion of the Veil Nebula is actually expanding debris from the supernova explosion of a star that took place over 5000 years ago. The Veil Nebula is approximately 1,440 light-years away (reported distance has been changing and continues to change based on recent scientific studies). The picture shows the fine colored wisps of gas which are filaments of shocked interstellar gas along the shockwave of the expanding supernova remnants. As the expanding supernova material smashes into the gas, the gas glows and forms the visible wisps of this image. The expanding material hits the gas at a speed of more than 600,000 kilometers per hour.

This image was taken on 06. 08. 2010 at 2am BST. It was a Moonless sky and The Milky Way was really clear during this August evening...10 seperate images of 5mins. @ ISO 1600, taken with a Canon 40D DSLR and Stellearview 102ED Refractor at f/5.6. Guiding with a Toucam Pro and K3CCD tools.....Image processing and capture in Nebulosity and Images Plus. Final Levels and Curves in Photoshop. ........copyright K.Grice 2010..

This enlarged and cropped image shows the incredible structure of the nebula.