SUNSET: 
0
Photographer:
Jon Greif
Location of Photo:
Alpine, CA, USA
Date/Time of photo:
July 9-10, 2024, between 10 pm and 1 am PDT
Equipment:
ZWO Seestar S50 smart-scope. Processing with Pixinsight software.
Description:
This is SH2-101, the Tulip Nebula (hint: picture the stem at the bottom and the petals on top), from our backyard sky last night. SH2-101 is a Hydrogen emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus. It was catalogued by astronomer Stewart Sharpless in his 1959 catalog of nebulae. It lies at a distance of about 6,000 light-years from Earth. Sh2-101, as viewed from Earth, is in close proximity to microquasar Cygnus X-1, site of one of the first suspected black holes. Cygnus X-1 was discovered in 1965 during a rocket flight and is one of the strongest X-ray sources detectable from Earth. Cygnus X-1 belongs to a high-mass X-ray binary system, located about 7300 light-years from Earth, that includes a blue supergiant variable star designated HDE 226868 (Red Arrow).
