MORE THAN A DECADE AGO, I opined that the intricate Veil Nebula is the most striking of all nebulae, surpassing the much brighter Carina, Orion and Tarantula. The Eta Carinae Nebula is by far the brightest, while the Orion Nebula is surely the most frequently observed, as well as being the most colourful. Steve Gottlieb claims nothing packs as much structure into a 30’ × 40’ field as the Tarantula Nebula. And after examining a few outlined in this article, you may have your own favourite.
The fab four
The Veil Nebula in Cygnus is a complex, 3°-wide supernova remnant. William Herschel discovered the main sections of the nebula in 1784. My 7×50 binoculars easily show the Veil's easternmost and brightest arc (NGC 6992). With an O III filter on my 40cm telescope, this arc exhibits diagonal streaks, ‘bays’ and ‘headlands’. The two ‘fangs’ of IC 1340 that project westward from NGC 6995's southern end are my favourite part of the Veil. North of the yellow-and-orange double star 52 Cygni, NGC 6960 is a spike with bright edges, while south of the star it's bifurcated.
Williamina Fleming's Triangular Wisp (named after its discoverer, and also known as Pickering's Triangle) is a lacy complex between the two main arcs. I can follow the Wisp's long tail southward for almost 2°; it's almost twice as long as either of the two brighter arcs. Faint and subtle NGC 6979 lies just east of the Wisp.
In an article in 2011, ‘Beyond the Familiar Veil,’ I described observations with my 40cm and an O III filter at 114× of seven “small streaks and blobs” of nebulosity within the nebula that had apparently never
