A wind-blown crescent

A round, cloud-like shell fills the center of the frame, its interior a tangle of glowing orange and red wisps edged by a faint blue-green rim. The surrounding sky is dark and speckled with stars, with soft reddish haze drifting across the background.

Aloke Palsikar, taken from Pie Town, New Mexico

The Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888) is an emission nebula about 5,600 light-years away in Cygnus. Its distinctive shape was formed by fast stellar winds from the Wolf-Rayet star at its center colliding with material the star shed earlier in its life. The astroimager took 3 hours of exposure in Hα and OIII filters with a 12-inch f/4.9 astrograph.