IC 5146 - The Cocoon Nebula Astrophotography
IC 5146, the Cocoon Nebula, is a reflection and emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus.
It has a similar shape to the Iris nebula, and is also surrounded by interstellar dust lanes. This is an exciting target to capture as it is colorful, and has a very long dust tail on one side that you can include in your frame!
Object Designation: IC5146, Caldwell 19, Sh2-125
Also known as: The Cocoon Nebula
Constellation: Cygnus
Object Type: Reflection/Emission Nebula
Distance: 3,262 light-years away
Magnitude: 7.2
Discovered in: 1894
We imaged this object several times, and will show you our favorite attempts below with tips and information. Do not center this target in your camera unless you are using a long focal length instrument and are planning to do a close-up shot, because capturing its dark tail makes the overall image more impressive than just the cocoon.
In the northern hemisphere, IC 5146 starts to rise at a good time in July and stays high until November. This means the best time to photograph the Cocoon Nebula is in Late Summer to Fall.
Cocoon Nebula Astrophotography with a Monochrome Camera in LRGB-HA
September 2024
4 years after my previous attempt, I decided to reshoot the Cocoon Nebula, this time with a refractor telescope and monochrome camera from a Bortle 1 site. I've always dreamed of imaging the Cocoon in LRGB+HA, and that is exactly what I did!
This picture was taken from Starfront Observatories, a set of very affordable remote observatories in the center of Texas, under very dark skies and great weather most of the year.
We made a video about Starfront when we installed our equipment there, and we recommend you watch it if you want to learn more about it!
The result is beautiful, and the HA data adds so much to the overall look of the image! There is so much hydrogen alpha gas visible in the background, both behind the nebula itself and around it.
Processing was very difficult, and I'm still not fully happy with the image as it was hard to deal with all this red interacting with the dark dust and the bluish nebula. I likely will reprocess that in the future and update this post when it is done!
Click the picture to see it in full resolution!
Learn how to process your data like this with our PixInsight processing guides.
GEAR USED:
Camera: QHY600M
Telescope: Stellarvue SVX130
Mount: 10Micron GM1000 HPS
Accessories: Moonlite Nitecrawler focuser / Pegasus Astro Ultimate Powerbox
Processing: Pixinsight with RC-Astro plugins, final touches in Skylum Luminar Neo
ACQUISITION DETAILS:
Total Exposure Time: 52 hours
Exposure Time per frame: 10 minutes
Filters: Chroma 3nm S/H/O
Gain: 56
Imaging the Cocoon Nebula with a cooled OSC Camera
July 17, 2020
With the same telescope used for our first attempt at the Cocoon Nebula back in 2017 and the same sky quality (Bortle 3), we decided to re-image this target this time using an astrophotography-dedicated cooled camera, the QHY128C OSC camera. We spent a total of 4 hours and 15 minutes of exposure, and are happy with the results!
GEAR USED:
Camera: QHYCCD 128C
Telescope: 8" Astrograph
Processing: Pixinsight
ACQUISITION DETAILS:
Total Exposure Time: 4 hours and 15 minutes
Exposure Time per frame: 180 seconds
Filters: ZWO IR Cut Filter
Gain: 3200
Imaging the Cocoon Nebula with an unmodified DSLR camera
October 28, 2017
We only spent one hour on this target before switching to the Helix Nebula, but we were really surprised with the result even with such low integration time!
We initially did not plan to image this object at all that night, but realized that our main target, the Helix, was still a bit too low in the horizon to be photographed so we "killed" some time on the Cocoon. If we knew it would look this impressive with just one hour of exposure time, we would have imaged it all night!
One hour of total exposure and very basic processing on IC 5146!
GEAR USED:
Camera: Canon 7D Mark II
Telescope: 8" Astrograph
Mount: Atlas EQ-G motorized Mount
Processing: Pixinsight
ACQUISITION DETAILS:
Total Exposure Time: 1 hour
Exposure Time per frame: 3 minutes
20 lights - 15 Darks - 15 Bias
ISO: 800
The core of the Cocoon nebula shows a bright star surrounded by black, pink and blue gas.
You should be able to get a lot of details on the nebula itself with a large telescope, but most people prefer to capture it wide field to include its long tail of dark dust.
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Locating the Cocoon Nebula
The Cocoon nebula is visually interesting if observed from a very dark zone, mostly because instruments need really good skies to reveal the dark lanes next to the nebula. If you do not have a large instrument or would prefer to use a small telescope, you will still be able to contemplate the cocoon as a glowing, diffuse circular object.
Locating the Cocoon is not an easy task, it lies in the high flying constellation of Cygnus, but is closer to Lacerta’s stars. It is near M39, a not-so-impressive cluster which is also not easy to find. The best way to land on IC 5146 manually is to draw an imaginary line between the very bright star Deneb and 4 Lac, the star in Lacerta closest to Cygnus. Your target will be about 3/4 of the way from Deneb.
The Cocoon Nebula by NASA and ESA
The European Space Agency (ESA) used the Herschel Space Observatory (an infrared telescope in orbit active from 2009 to 2013) to capture this unique photo of the Cocoon Nebula. The goal was to show the star forming regions present in the Cocoon's Nebula's long dust tail.
You can see many bright glowing areas within the tail, where new stars are forming!
Cool Facts about the Cocoon Nebula
Central star lights up the nebula
Has interstellar dust lanes forming a tail, called Barnard 168
IC 5146 is a compact star forming region
Single Shot & Processing of the Cocoon Nebula
Below you can see a single shot of IC 5146 with our DSLR camera (left), the OSC camera (center) and the monochrome camera (right). It does not look really great at first sight, but stacking makes a huge difference here! You can also clearly see the dark dust lanes, which can help you frame the nebula to your liking.
As for the processing, we used the same workflow we always use for nebulae, which can be found HERE.
Final Thoughts
The Cocoon Nebula is a magnificent target that is popular for amateur astrophotographers due to its tail of dark interstellar dust. It is a great object for regular RGB colors so a DSLR or a OSC cooled camera is perfect for the job! Spending some additional time with a Hydrogen Alpha filter will also enhance your image by a ton, revealing so much hidden HA in the background.
Have you captured the Cocoon Nebula? Attach your image in the comments and let us know what equipment you used!
Clear Skies,
Galactic Hunter
