Thrown for a loop

A tall, roughly oval ring of tangled, thread-like clouds fills the frame against a dark red haze sprinkled with tiny stars. The strands glow red with streaks of pale blue and white, brightest along a curved arc at upper left, a long sweeping arc at right, and a pair of thin, nearly straight streaks running diagonally through the middle, while a fainter, looser loop trails off toward the bottom.

Ionut Nedelcu from Central Bedfordshire, England

The Cygnus Loop (Sharpless 2-103), a supernova remnant whose brightest arcs form the Veil Nebula, lies about 2,400 light-years away. Its glowing filaments trace gas heated by the blast wave of a massive star that exploded roughly 10,000 years ago. The imager took 17 hours of exposure in Hα/OIII/RGB filters with a 2.6-inch refractor at f/4.8.