This large area of emission nebulosity surrounds Sadr, Gamma Cygni, the brightest star in this photo and the heart of the constellation of Cygnus, the Swan. Numerous star clusters can also be found embedded in the nebulosity.

The two sections of nebulosity above of Sadr are called the Butterfly Nebula, and have the catalog designation of IC 1318. The large area of dark nebulosity that separates the two halves of the Butterfly is LDN 889, and B343 is the small but very dense dark nebula at the bottom center of the image.

The small open cluster NGC 6910 is just to the upper right of Sadr, and M29, another open cluster, lies at upper left.

The NGC 6888, the Crescent Nebula, is at the lower left.

The small patches of blue reflection nebulosity at upper right are part of the NGC 6914 / van den Berg 31 / van den Berg 32 complex.

This image is a composite of RGB color data plus Hydrogen-Alpha luminance data.

North is to the right in the above image.

IC 1318 Catalogs: IC 1318 Common Name: Butterfly Nebula Object Type: Emission Nebula Size: 45' x 20' Constellation: Cygnus Image Field Centered At: RA: 20h 20m 40s Dec: +40° 03' 07"