Pickering’s Triangle is part of the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant, which includes the famous Veil Nebula. It is located about 1500 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Cygnus. This glowing gas resulted from the explosion of a massive star approximately 7000 years ago. The shock wave of this explosion sweeps through the interstellar matter and excites the ionized hydrogen atoms to glow in red and the oxygen ones to glow in blue. Pickering’s Triangle has no NGC number, though NGC6974 is occasionally used to refer to it (NGC6974 is part of the nebula in the lower left corner).
Pickering’s Triangle
Telescope: 16″ f3.75 Dream Scope
Camera: FLI ML16803
Mount: ASA DDM85
Exposure: 12 hours (42x300s L + 30x300s Ha + 3x24x300s RGB)
Date: July 2018
Location: Southern Alps, France
Bart Delsaert - Astrophotography 