The Cocoon Nebula is a small but very well-known emission nebula and cluster in northeastern Cygnus, and one that I have never seen despite numerous attempts to do so. The nebula, which goes by the designation IC 5146, is at the east end of a long, narrow dark nebula knows as Barnard 168. This image is a stack of 4 images for a total of 120 seconds. It turns out that the most noteworthy object in the field, at least for large binoculars or modest telescopes, is the large open cluster in Lacerta, NGC 7209. Unannotated image. |