IC 1318 - wonderfuluniverse.de

IC 1318 from France and remote

The emission nebula IC 1318 , often called the Butterfly Nebula, lies in the rich star fields of the constellation Cygnus, near the bright star Gamma Cygni (Sadr). This vast region of glowing hydrogen gas and intricate dark dust lanes forms one of the most striking areas of the northern summer Milky Way. The nebula’s delicate, wing-like structures give it a soft, ethereal appearance, contrasting beautifully with the surrounding dark filaments and bright foreground stars.

In 2018, I received data sets from Deep Sky West (DSW) for this object, captured with their professional telescopes located in New Mexico. The quality and depth of the DSW data revealed a wealth of fine detail across the emission regions and dark clouds, showcasing the complex interplay of gas and dust in this part of Cygnus.

This object has been a personal favorite of mine for many years. I first photographed this region in 2011, during a holiday in Banon, Southern France, using my own mobile setup under the dark Provençal skies. Revisiting it years later with the DSW data provided a fascinating opportunity to see how improved instrumentation and processing techniques can transform the final result.

The data calibration, registration, and final image processing were all carried out using PixInsight.

The result was as follows: