Which size is right for your space?

• Living room (above sofa): 48x32
• Bedroom (above headboard): 36x24 or 48x32
• Dining room: 36x24 or 48x32, depending on wall size
• Home office or den: 30x20 or 36x24
• Large foyer or entryway: 48x32
• Hallway, bathroom, or gallery wall: 18x12 or 24x16

When in doubt, go bigger than you think. The art, including any frame, should fill about ⅔ the width of the furniture beneath it. Sizes listed are the photograph itself; framed paper prints, with a 2" mat and frame, are about 3–5" larger in each direction.

See it on your wall before you order

Use the buttons below the image:

• Wall Preview: upload a photo of your room and see this print on your wall in your chosen size and frame.
• Live Preview AR: on your phone or tablet, point your camera at your wall and see the print there in real time.

Framed prints arrive ready to hang

Framed paper prints are matted with a 2" white mat and protected by non-glare acrylic, so the image stays clear without reflections from windows or lights. Acrylic is lighter and safer to ship than glass, and every framed print arrives with hanging hardware already attached.

MetalPrints with a float mount or frame also arrive ready to hang.

Questions about size, material, or framing? See the FAQ or email me a photo of your wall, and I'll suggest a size and finish.

About this photograph

The Cygnus Loop (collectively cataloged as Sharpless 103, i.e., Sh2-103) is a large supernova remnant (SNR) in the constellation Cygnus, an emission nebula measuring nearly 3° across. Radio, infrared, and X-ray images reveal the complete loop.

The visual portion of the Cygnus Loop is known as the Veil Nebula, also called the Cirrus Nebula or the Filamentary Nebula. Several components have separate names and identifiers, including the "Western Veil" (on the right side, NGC 6960) or "Witch's Broom", the "Eastern Veil" (on the left side, NGC 6995), and Pickering's Triangle (between the two 'veils').

The Cygnus Loop supernova remnant is about 2.670 light-years from Earth, is approximately 120 light-years in diameter, and is estimated to be 20,000 years old.

I chose to render the photograph of the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant using HOO color palette. See below in the Full Description section for an explanation of HOO color palette.

This photograph is a two-panel mosaic I captured over three weeks. Each panel took three nights, and about 90 images were stacked per panel. I was able to capture this in my Bortle 8 urban skies in my backyard in Phoenix, Arizona.

NOTE:

The majority of photographs of nebula are in a false color palette. False-color photographs of nebulae are essentially color (RGB) photographs whose color channels have been mapped to specific emission lines. In these images, each color can represent a specific element. In other words, a false-color image of a nebula tells us exactly what it’s made of. There are many emission lines, but the three most photographed by astronomers are hydrogen-alpha, oxygen-III and sulfur-II. These emission lines are captured by using narrowband filters which only let through the light at very specific wavelengths, typically most of my photographs are taken with filters allowing a bandwidth of 3µm.

Mapping Hα, O-III and S-II to red, green and blue is problematic when two of them are red, one is blue/green, and none is pure blue. Astronomers deal with this by using false color — one or more of these elements will have to take a hit for the team and take on an unnatural hue. The HOO color palette assigns red to Hα, green and blue to O-III: red is accurate, and green and blue are false. Sometimes, some astrophotogers add some Hα to the O-III in the green channel for a synthetic green. The point of this color palette is to emphasize specific nebula structures so that they are more prominent. This photograph uses the HOO color palette, hence the reds and blues you find in the photograph.