NGC 6960 The Witch’s Broom

My first real attempt at Mono imaging with narrow band. Learned a valuable lesson with the ToupeTek 585M camera. I have been using an older laptop for all my imaging. The laptop has USB 2.0 connections only no USB 3.0. My first attempt at this was very disappointing. Images were very noisy, colors seemed washed out and when trying to use HCG mode I could not get the offset to produce a minimum value that was acceptable. Well actually I could but I had to set the offset at 3000, which I knew was not correct. I was about to give up with mono until ToupeTek really stepped in and helped me out. It all came down to using the USB2.0. I updated my laptop to a nice, refurbished Dell with USB3.0 connections and BAM, all worked as it should. This is one of my best photos to date as far as I am concerned and looking forward to many more with the ToupTek 585m.

NGC 6960—aptly nicknamed the Witch’s Broom—is the western filament of the Veil Nebula, a sprawling supernova remnant located about 1,400 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. This ribbon of ionized gas was forged from a massive star explosion roughly 10,000 years ago, and what remains is a shockwave illuminating the interstellar dust and gas like delicate embroidery across the sky. It's like the universe tried its hand at calligraphy in glowing neon. The nebula's wispy tendrils glow predominantly in hydrogen-alpha (red) and doubly ionized oxygen (blue).

Astrophotographers like myself, love NGC 6960 not just for its hypnotic structure, but for the challenge it poses. The bright star 52 Cygni sits smack in the middle of the frame, not part of the nebula but perfectly placed to throw a curveball at imaging and processing this area.

Sessions

Total Integration Time:

July 22, 2025 - 133 * 120.0 seconds
Ha filter
July 23, 2025 - 133 * 120.0 seconds
OIII filter

Catalogues

Caldwell New General Catalogue

Targets

C34 NGC6960

Gear

Telescope: Stellarvue SVX102T - Raptor
Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro
Mount: iOptron CEM40