Sh2-114: The Flying Dragon Nebula
“A faint, intricate emission nebula in Cygnus showcasing delicate, wispy filaments of glowing hydrogen gas that give it the appearance of a mythical dragon in flight.”
Sh2-114, popularly known as the Flying Dragon Nebula, is a faint and complex emission nebula located in the constellation Cygnus. It features delicate, wispy filaments of glowing hydrogen gas that stretch across the star-rich background, creating an unmistakable silhouette of a mythical dragon taking flight across the cosmos.
The intricate, ribbon-like structures of this nebula are quite unusual. This image combines deep Hydrogen-alpha data to reveal the structural details, layered with RGB data for natural star colors.
Sh2-114 is also catalogued as LBN 347 and lies about four degrees east-northeast of Sigma Cygni. Its distance is given as about 1,180 parsecs, roughly 3,800 light-years. The small bipolar planetary nebula Kronberger 26, at its north-eastern edge, is unrelated and appears there only by line-of-sight alignment.
Stacked and processed in PixInsight.
Equipment
Integration
| Filter | Subs |
|---|---|
| Ha | 52 x 600s (8h 40m) |
| R | 10 x 180s (30m) |
| G | 10 x 180s (30m) |
| B | 10 x 180s (30m) |