NGC 6914 (vdB 131) and vdB 132 in Cygnus

NGC 6914, also known as vdB 131, is a reflection nebula located in constellation Cygnus. It’s part of a bigger nebular complex comprising another reflection nebula, vdB 132, and several dark nebulae (LDN 897, 899 and 900). The whole complex is surrounded by one of the Milky Way’s H-alpha densest areas, about 2.5 degrees north of Gamma Cygni (Sadr).

I imaged this area of the sky in July 2015 from one of Northwestern Italy’s darkest sites, Colle del Nivolet, located at 2500 m elevation in the Gran Paradiso National Park. This image is a composite of 16 10-minute frames with a full-spectrum modified Canon 450D DSLR at 800 ISO through an 8-inch GSO RC OTA plus AP 0.67x reducer (resulting focal length about 1080 mm). The fact that the camera was completely deprived of the IR-cut filter increased its sensitivity to nebulas but also produced bright halos around the brightest stars. I like the overall result though.

Thanks a lot to Edoardo Radice for his invaluable advice on the use of PixInsight’s color balancing tools.

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