Making up for last week's lost report, here is an elaborate, cluttered star-field two degrees in range of the constellation Cygnus, known both as the Swan or Northern Cross. However, the main point of interest is the eye in the cosmic Cocoon Nebula, roughly four thousand light years from Earth, the eye being the bright spot at the end of a trail of starless space. IC 5146, as it is known in the catalogue, expands for fifteen light years. The red glow of the eye signifies hydrogen gas, all stimulated by dust-reflected starlight (like the Witch Head Nebula) which would otherwise be invisible to the molecular. The centre star, scientists believe, is hundreds of thousands years old (but just a few!), its glow like the Young Cluster and clearing a space for the forming dust and gas of stars. As much as this does show, more stars hide behind the screens of dust.
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