Image 1: The Cocoon Nebula by Calvin Klatt.
Apologies, dear reader: Few new images have appeared in recent weeks. There are two reasons for this... first the northern summer leaves little time when the sky is dark. At the summer solstice the true darkness at Lac Teeples only lasts around 2 hours.
Second, I will note that my main telescope, the RASA-11, had what appeared to be a minor problem. That minor problem led to it being shipped to California for (warranty) repairs! Overall it had a Californian vacation lasting around a month.
This image was captured after the return of the RASA-11 to it's Lac Teeples home.
IC 5146, or the Cocoon Nebula, is (according to Wikipedia) a cluster of 9.5 magnitude stars involved in a bright and dark nebula. It includes both red emission (hydrogen-alpha) and reflection of the bright stars. The nebula is easily viewed from Canada, located in the constellation of Cygnus. The cluster is about 4,000 light years away, and the central star that lights it formed about 100,000 years ago. It is relatively nearby in the Milky Way galaxy.
The nebula is associated with a dark nebula known as Barnard 168 - The two are really one object. The dark clouds are easily seen in the image above.
I have created other images of this nebula, given its location and interesting shape. Those images all made it look like a very cozy cocoon. To me this image is quite different. It shows the cosmic storms in the fine details of the nebulosity. It does not look "cozy" to me at all, and not much of a cocoon. I now see a terrible cosmic storm with black smoke and sharp storm clouds framing a dramatic scene. I looked at the versions shown on some websites, including Wikipedia, and I believe that this image is comparable in quality to any except those from exceptional professional telescopes (such as Hubble).
This image of the Cocoon Nebula was captured at Lac Teeples on August 5, 2022 with the RASA-11 telescope. It includes data from the colour ASI6200 camera plus Hydrogen-Alpha emission line data. The H-Alpha data was used as a luminosity channel in LRGB imaging.
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