APOD: 2022 June 18 - The Gamma Cygni Nebula

Good morning, Rallypoint, and welcome to the June 18th edition of Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD): "The Gamma Cygni Nebula." It's pretty easy to find the constellation Cygnus this time of year in the northern hemisphere...just look up. Your eye will find Sadr (aka Gamma Cygni, 1800 light years distant) fairly quickly. The backdrop to Sadr is IC 1318, the Gamma Cygni Nebula (an additional ~3000 light years further out). Its more familiar name is The Butterfly Nebula.

This is a composite image was captured over the course of nine days in May 2022. According to notes published by the astrophotographer, exposure time using just the narrowband filters (red Hα and blue O-III) alone was over 34 hours! You can find the complete notes and list of gear on Astrobin.