IC 5146: Cocoon Nebula in a River of Dust 4 Panel Mosaic

2025

Oct 21

Written By Charles Lillo

Wide-field mosaic of the Cocoon Nebula (IC 5146) and surrounding dark nebulae in Cygnus, showing a bright pink emission region at right and long, dark filaments of interstellar dust stretching across the field.

Image Title: IC 5146: Cocoon Nebula in a River of Dust 4 Panel Mosaic

Copyright: Phil Aichinger & Jamie Macdougall

Date image was taken: August 20, 2025

Location: PixelSkies Observatory, Southern Spain

Data Acquisition Method: Remote Observatory (Commercial)

Description and Details: This is our 4 panel mosaic of the popular target IC5146 - the cocoon nebula. over the four panels 224 hours of integration time has been used to create the level of detail found in the image. This is an LRGBha image captured using our Dual ZWO FF130 APO setup. the Mosaic was captured over over a two month period between 7th July and 20th of August this year.its interesting that the 3rd Panel so the bottom left panel required double the luminance data in order to increase the SNR in that area.

Lum/Clear
1242×180″
62h 6′

R
514×180″
25h 42′

G
502×180″
25h 6′

B
500×180″
25h

Hα
1042×300″
86h 50′

Totals
224h 44′