NGC 6914 – Reflection Nebula
NGC 6914 is a fascinating complex of three main reflection nebulae, consisting of NGC 6914 itself together with vdB 131 and vdB 132, located in the heart of the constellation Cygnus. It lies at an approximate distance of 6,000 light-years, within the Cygnus OB2 stellar association. This region stands out for the strong contrast between the characteristic blue color of the reflection nebulae—caused by interstellar dust scattering the light of young, hot, massive stars—and the reddish background of ionized hydrogen emission nebulae, along with dark nebular filaments. It has an apparent size of about 13.0 × 12.0 arcminutes, while its visual magnitude is difficult to determine precisely because of the diffuse nature of the dust and the variability of the surrounding stellar illumination.
General information
- Constellation
- Cygnus
- Category
- Nebulae
- Date
- 14 July 2024
Capture
- Total time
- 11h 24min
- Subframes
- 360s (CLS-L: 55x) bin1; 360s (R: 19x, G: 19x, B: 21x) bin2
- Gain / Offset
- 125 / N/A
- Calibration
- N/A
Equipment
- Telescope
- TS102 f/5.6
- Camera
- ZWO ASI294MM at -5 °C
- Filters
- Ha, CLS-L, R, G and B Astronomik
- Mount
- Sky-Watcher HEQ-5 Pro belt drive
- Guiding
- PHD2, Guide scope 60mm/f4 + ASI224MC
Processing and environment
- Processing
- Pre-processing, stacked and post-processed with PixInsight 1.8.9
- Acquisition
- NINA + Cartes du Ciel
- Location
- l'Ampolla, Tarragona
- Sky
- Bortle 4