The Horns of Vega

Catalog # MW8

18 x 20 minutes (6 hours total exposure time) with a Pentax 67 medium format 165mm lens @ f/5.6 using a Kodak 6303 detector.  Image was dark subtracted and flat-fielded.  Shot from Hidden Valley Observatory in Soquel California, 3/25/05.

The "blob" in the lower right section of the image (partially cut off) is Vega.  The streamers of HII material appearing to come from it are actually line-of-sight and not associated with Vega.  In the upper left hand corner of the image is an  HII region that is part of the Cygnus complex - as the Horns might be also.  Astronomers have not yet determined their association.

The image is seen in the negative and contrast has been boosted to better see the very faint structures.

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