Pillars in Vulpecula - NGC 6820 (Massimo Di Fusco)

Pillars in Vulpecula - NGC 6820

This picture was born from the collaboration between me, who processed it, and 2 other amateur astrophotographer friends who collected the signal from the nebula and the stars. The processing had stopped for a month on the starless version of the nebula photographed in narrow band by Giacomo who, for a series of reasons, was unable to photograph the stars in broadband. At this point, I asked for Lino's intervention which allowed us to complete the work.

NGC 6820 (also known as Sh2-86) is an emission nebula in the constellation Vulpecula surrounding the open cluster NGC 6823, which spans about 50 light-years and is located about 6000 light-years away. The gases in the cloud are ionized by the energy received from the young stars of this cluster, which is part of the Vulpecula OB1 association, and then re-emitting the radiation in the form of light.
NGC 6820 extends for about 60' in the direction of the galactic plane and for about 25' perpendicular to it and its most striking feature is the trunk-shaped column of dust and gas that protrudes from the east side towards the open cluster NGC 6823.
The center of the open cluster is about two million years old and consists predominantly of many young, bright blue stars. The outer parts of the cluster, which closely involve the pillars of the nebula, contain even younger stars. The huge pillars are likely formed when surrounding gas and dust is pushed and eroded by radiation from nearby stars.

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
PixInsight job	0K36FZWTECXQLFH02RNNUIW26YJTJTXH
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	19h43m10s.43
RA (top/left)	19h41m01s.93
RA (top/right)	19h41m25s.48
RA (bottom/right)	19h45m18s.14
RA (bottom/left)	19h44m56s.33

Dec (center)	+23°17′46″.7
Dec (top/left)	+23°55′38″.6
Dec (top/right)	+22°36′08″.0
Dec (bottom/right)	+22°39′38″.8
Dec (bottom/left)	+23°59′09″.8

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