The reflection and emission nebula IC 5146 (Cocoon nebula, Caldwell 19) in the constellation
of Cygnus on October 18 / 19, 2017. IC 5146 is 3300 light-years from Earth and measures 15 light-years in diameter. Embedded in the nebula is
a small open cluster known as Collinder 470. The stars formed a few hundred thousand years ago and illuminate the nebula. As seen from Earth,
IC 5146 is situated at the end of a long dark lane called Barnard 168, a dark nebula. Unfortunately, my image doesn't show it well. IC 5146 was
independently discovered by both American astronomer Edward Barnard in 1893 and German astronomer Max Wolf in 1894 (source: Wikipedia).
Thirty-eight exposures of 3 minutes at ISO 800 were stacked with no dark frame subtraction with Deep Sky Stacker (resulting in a
1 h 54 min exposure) and further processed in Photoshop.
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Equipment: Canon EOS 450D Baader modified camera, TeleVue Paracorr Type II coma corrector,
16" f/4.5 "Ninja" dobsonian telescope riding on a dual-axis Tom Osypowski equatorial platform,
Lacerta MGEN autoguider, Lacerta off axis system (field of view comparison:
image of the moon with the same equipment).
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