Crescent Nebula

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A misshapen oval pink cloud outlined by a thin wispy blue layer surrounds a bright star with 4-point diffraction spikes. In the backdrop is a starfield speckled with blue and red specks of light. A hazy band of red runs roughly diagonal between the pink cloud and the lower right hand corner.

Full description

The Crescent Nebula, also known as NGC 6888, is a Emission Nebula in the constellation of Cygnus the Swan.

NGC stands for The New General Catalog of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars compiled by John Louis Emil Dreyer in 1888. Since then, the catalog has been updated and corrected. The last update occurred in 2019, containing 13957 objects.

An emission nebula is a cloud of gas that is energized and made to glow by a bright star at its center. The appearance of the nebula gave rise to the nickname Crescent (or Euro sign ) nebula. The two predominant colors (a deep red surrounded by a blue envelope) is due to two shockwaves caused by the bright star at its center and energizing Hydrogen gas in different ways.

The Crescent is about 5000 light-years away from Earth. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1792.

This image was obtained at the EKU’s Observatory, described elsewhere, during the nights of June 3 and June 4 2022.

Download image “Crescent Nebula”