The Caldwell Objects

under the dark skies of Seagrave Observatory in
Rhode Island. The experience opened my eyes to
the corrosive power of light pollution, for what I
could detect in binoculars under a dark sky I
could not detect in a fairly large telescope under
city skies. That same night, Richard Lynch, of the
Skyscrapers Astronomy Club, showed me the
Veil's feathery form through Seagrave's 9-inch
refractor. I enjoyed seeing this stellar corpse from
an observatory with the word "grave" in it. The
experience has had an impact on me ever since.
Here in Hawaii, for example, low-power views of
the nebula still remind me of spirits fleeing an
open grave.
Seen through the Genesis at 23x, the
brightest portions of the Veil (NGC 6992 and
NGC 6995) are remarkably obvious, looking like
a cosmic ripple. Even a fast sweep of the region
brings them clearly into view. In fact, during a
comet hunt in December 19961 chanced upon
them, finding that they resembled a headless
comet with a diabolically curved tail. This
appearance made me wonder how Messier had
missed such a splendor. But the answer seems
obvious. Messier did not enjoy the wide fields of
view provided by so many of today's telescopes.
Through his narrow-field instruments the
nebula, if detected at all, would have appeared
like dim and stringy sections of the Milky Way
and not anything like the condensed form of a
comet. Remember, too, that the Veil resides on
the eastern outskirts of the overwhelmingly
complex Cygnus Milky Way. In his Celestial
Handbook Robert Burnham Jr. argues that a widefield
eyepiece is essential for detecting this
difficult object, which he likens to "a miniature
Milky Way in itself."
Many works will state that small telescopes
will not reveal much detail in the Veil's opposing
segments. But this is not wholly true. What one
sees depends in part on his or her location
The Caldwell Objects
33 & 34
and experience. Through the Genesis under a
dark sky, the Veil appears to me as intricately
braided vapors encircling a hollow area of the
Milky Way. The braided structure of the various
filaments can be inferred from the numerous
dark lanes that cross the glowing nebulosity.
Especially apparent are the gaps between NGC
6992, NGC 6995, and IC 1340, the three segments
that make up the Network Nebula. (IC 1340 was
not included by Patrick Moore when he defined
Caldwell 33, but clearly it is part of the Network
Nebula.) I did view each independent section
with medium and high power. The Network
Nebula took 72x very well! I could not make out
individual streamers, but I could infer their
presence from the nebulosity's definite patchiness
and its dark veins. Sky & Telescope editor Joshua
Roth says he used to get "knockout views" of the
Veil from California's Mount Pinos with a 41 / - 8
inch Astroscan and an ultra-high-contrast filter.
Some of Mount Pinos's "old-timers," he adds,
were surprised that this telescope could show the
whole loop at 16x, and with some detail at that.
He also finds the Veil pretty easy in 7x50
binoculars from a dark site.
The Filamentary Nebula (NGC 6960) is best
seen by placing 52 Cygni in the center of the
field. Look for a beautiful stream of vapor or a
lock of silver hair flowing by the star, like a
comet's dim ion tail. A very faint extension can
be followed to the south, but doing so with a
small telescope takes time and patience. I should
note that I visually "climbed the ladder" of the
Filamentary Nebula's twisting filaments at the
1994 Texas Star Party, where I climbed a ladder
and peered through the eyepiece of a 36-inch
reflector built (and then owned) by Florida
amateurs Tom and Jeannie Clark. The view of the
Veil through that telescope was as good as any
photograph (better, in fact, because I experienced
it firsthand) and the nebula possessed a rosecolored
hue. It's rare
133