The Crescent Nebula in the constellation of Cygnus is a beautiful summer object. The source of this emission nebula, which is around 4,700 light years away, is its central Wolf-Rayet star WR137. This massive star is about to end as a supernova, ejecting its envelope due to its enormous luminosity and illuminating it in ultraviolet light due to its very high temperature. The atoms of the nebula are excited by this and then radiate in visible light. Our club member Patrick Staden has now photographed the nebula with the telescopes of our School Lab and various filters and will be working through the procedures for schoolchildren.
13 years ago, we organized a four-month spectroscopic measurement campaign in collaboration with the Université de Montréal. Amateur astronomers, including some students from our school network, were given exclusive access to a professional observatory on Tenerife. Another six observatories in Canada, the Czech Republic, England and Hawaii were involved in the campaign and provided data. The result was a professional publication in the renowned journal MNRAS, for which our pupils were co-authors.
And while Patrick was at it, he also photographed the galaxy cluster Abell2151, which is 100,000 times further away.
Photos: Patrick Staden. Text: Thomas Eversberg
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