NGC 6960 — Western Veil Nebula
The western filament of the Veil Nebula, the glowing remnant of a supernova explosion that occurred thousands of years ago.
View photos ↓- Object type
- Supernova remnant (emission nebula)
- Constellation
- Cygnus
- Designation
- NGC 6960 (Veil Nebula — Witch's Broom)
- Distance
- ≈ 2,400 light-years
- Apparent magnitude
- 7.0
- Apparent size
- ≈ 70 x 6 arcmin
- Best season
- Summer / Autumn (best visibility in Aug-Sep)
NGC 6960, nicknamed the “Witch’s Broom,” forms the western part of the Veil Nebula, a vast supernova remnant. Its gas was swept up and ionized by the shockwave of a massive star that exploded roughly ten thousand years ago, close to the bright star 52 Cygni which appears to run right through the nebula.
This image shows the thin, wispy filaments characteristic of the nebula, traced out by the expanding shock front — a texture quite different from more diffuse emission nebulae like the Pelican.
A short first-look session on this target with the Seestar S30 Pro mounted in equatorial mode on the EQ3 and its light pollution filter: 16 sub-exposures of 30 seconds each (≈ 8 minutes total integration), stacked and processed in Siril.
