Pictures of the Crescent Nebula

The Crescent Nebula, or NGC 6888 as it is formally known, is a distinctive emission nebula that stretches about 25 lightyears across and is located about 5,000 lightyears away from Earth in the Cygnus constellation.

Discovered by William Herschel in 1792, the Crescent Nebula is the result of a type of star known as a Wolf-Rayet, which are massive stellar objects that are ageing and losing mass at an incredibly high rate.

That's certainly the case with this Wolf Rayet: the star is shedding its outer layers into space at a rate equivalent to the mass of the Sun about every 10,000 years.

This violent and rapid ejection has produced a dense shell of scorching hot material that gives the nebula its shape, while the complex structures seen within the bubble are likely the result of stellar winds colliding and interacting with older material ejected by the star long ago.

It is thought that the star at the centre of the Crescent Nebula - known as WR 136 - will eventually end its life in a dramatic stellar explosion known as a supernova.

The Crescent Nebula is also known as Caldwell 27, a member of the famous Caldwell Catalogue conceived by Sir Patrick Moore.

Below is a selection of images of the Crescent Nebula captured by BBC Sky at Night Magazine readers and astrophotographers from around the world.

If you'd like to get into capturing images of the night sky yourself, find out more about astrophotography with our astrophotography guides, or discover our pick of the best cameras for astrophotography.

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