It’s back! After a long hiatus, we’re bringing back our weekly test of your visual knowledge of the cosmos, the Where In The Universe (WITU) Challenge. If you’re new to UT, or in case you’ve forgotten, here’s the drill: take a look at this image and see if you can determine where in the Universe this image depicts. Post your guesses in the comments section, and check back on later at this same post to find the answer. To make this challenge fun for everyone, please don’t include links or extensive explanations with your answer. Good luck!
Also, if you have ideas for future WITU Challenges, send them to Nancy.
UPDATE: The answer has now been posted, below:
This is Gamma Cygni, also known as SADR, and the image was taken by astrophotographer César Cantú. Gamma Cygni is a yellow giant star, about 65,000 times brighter than our Sun, and it shows up as the bright star in the center of the image. The Gamma Cygni nebula consists of the pink cloudy region which can be seen surrounding Gamma Cygni. However, Gamma Cygni is actually not part of this nebula; it is a foreground star located half way between us and the nebula. The image looks deep into the Orion Arm of our the Milky Way Galaxy, and the nebula is more than 3,000 light years from us.
For this image, César used his Takahashi 180ED Epsilon Telescope and FLI 8300 camera, both on an Orion Atlas EQ mount. See a larger version and more info on his website.
Thanks to César for sharing his image of Gamma Cygni! Check back next week for another test of your visual knowledge of the cosmos!
w00t!!! Glad to see it back! Thanks Nancy!
I am new to this and it looks interesting, thanks! I’ll be searching!
Orion’s Nebula!!! n_n
The pistol star.
Gamma Cygni?
Imaged the area last week…but I won’t spoil the challenge for others 🙂
It’s the Sadr region (IC 1318) surrounding Sadr (Gamma Cygni).
Agreed, not that I would have gotten this.
LC
Also confirmed, but gave up trying to find it myself. 🙁
pistol star and nebula in sagittarius
Looks like Dzeta of the Orion. Near one of Orion’s nebulas – Hoursehead nebula.
The Gamma Cygni Nebula ic1318, it’s hiding deep into the Orion Arm in our galaxys direction.
Trifid Nebula.
-Dilip G Banhatti / Madurai (India)
It’s Sadr & IC 1318
The Gamma Cygni nebula consists of the various pink patches which can be seen surrounding Gamma Cygni – the bright star in the middle of this photograph. Gamma Cygni is actually not part of this nebula, it is a foreground star located half way between us and the nebula. We are looking deep into the Orion Arm of our Galaxy in this direction and the nebula is more than 3000 light years from us
It is IC1318 in cygnus!!!!