APOD: 2022 August 27 - IC 5146: The Cocoon Nebula

Good afternoon, Rallypoint, and welcome to the August 27th edition of Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD): "The Cocoon Nebula." The Cocoon Nebula is about 4,000 light years from Earth and lies in the constellation Cygnus (the Swan). It is both an emission (light producing) and reflection (visible because of a light source) nebula, and is a site of active star formation. Researchers believe that the central star is only 100,000 years old. Both the Spitzer Space Telescope and Chandra X-Ray Observatory have identified relatively young stellar objects.

The astrophotographer's notes tell us he used an ESpirit 150 ED telescope, an EQ9 Rh Pro mount, an ASIAIR Pro camera controller, an ASI2600MM Pro camera, and Astronomik filters to highlight the presence of ionized hydrogen. Great gear, and a great photo.