For me it is really amazing what we can achieve with a teleskop with a mirror diameter of 250 mm and a special astrocamera. For the picture with the firebird or western veil 130 images with each 10 seconds exposure time were captured and added up with a PC.

The firebird or veil nebula, is a small part of the cygnus loop in the constellation swan. It is aproximately 1500 light years distant from the earth and arose many tousands of years ago due to an explosion of a huge supernova. The rapid shock front has collided with an extended cloud of gas, whereby the molecules of the gas cloud were induced to shine. The different colors are from the different types of molecules in the gas cloud.