The Veil

The Story is in the Stars

In the constellation Cygnus (Latin for Swan) lies the Cygnus Loop, or the Veil Nebula complex. I say  complex as it is made up of several parts, each of which is a remnant of a supernove between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago. It lies, according to the latest studies, about 2,400 light years distance and it is approximately 120 light years across.[1]

The whole structure is a beautiful nebula to photograph, revealing itself in bright hues of red and blue, which give it a purplish glow through my telescopes.[2] When view and photographing the complex the various parts are easy to distinguish and are large enough and prominent enough that they have their own astronomical designations – The Western Veil, or Witch’s Broom Nebula, The Eastern Veil or Network Nebula, and Pickering’s Triangle. And each of these larger structures contain smaller structures that have been photographed separately.

By definition, a nebula is a structure or cloud of dust formed by the explosion of a star. Scientists posit that the star responsible for the Veil Complex was a star 20 times more massive than the sun.

Here is my observation of the whole Complex using my smaller telescope (Williams Optics RedCat 51) and a one shot color camera (ZWO 2600MC). The smaller scope has a wider field of view and was perfect for capturing the whole structure.

With my larger scope (Explore Scientific 127mm) and a monochrome camera (ZWO 2600MM) using Hydrogen and Oxygen filters I captured the Eastern and Western Veil Nebulae which reside on the outer edges of the larger structure. The massive amount of energy needed to create that structure is far beyond my math! But, that explosion created a really beautiful structure. 

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In the TaNaK (Old Testament) we read about how the LORD had the children of Israel construct The Ark and to build a structure in which to house it, the Tabernacle. Part of the structure of the Tabernacle was the Holy of Holies, a part of the Tabernacle in which The Ark was placed and which was completely off limits for everyone save the High Priest, and he would enter only one day out of the year, on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16.30). It was a day in which the “atonement was to be made” to cleanse them from all sin. The Holy of Holies had a veil in front of it that separated the people from The Ark where the LORD resided. This was true of the Tabernacle and later of the Temples (Solomons, Zerubbabel’s, Herod’s).[3] This how Josephus described Herod’s Temple veil

But then this house, as it was divided into two parts, the inner part was lower than the appearance of the outer, and had golden doors of fifty-five cubits altitude, and sixteen in breadth; but before these doors there was a veil of equal largeness with the doors. It was a Babylonian curtain, embroidered with blue, and fine linen, and scarlet, and purple, and of a contexture that was truly wonderful. Nor was this mixture of colors without its mystical interpretation, but was a kind of image of the universe (ὅλων)[4]; for by the scarlet there seemed to be enigmatically signified fire, by the fine flax the earth, by the blue the air, and by the purple the sea; two of them having their colors the foundation of this resemblance; but the fine flax and the purple have their own origin for that foundation, the earth producing the one, and the sea the other. This curtain had also embroidered upon it all that was mystical in the heavens (οὐράνιον), excepting that of the [twelve] signs (ζῳδιακον), representing living creatures.

When I started viewing and photographing the veil nebulae I was reminded of the description of the colors of the Tabernacle and Temple veils in Scripture and in Josephus. It is interesting how Josephus points to the colors as being reflective of the universe and the heavens!

And, as I looked at my photos of the Veil Complex, an astronomical structure that was created with the explosion of a massive star, I was reminded again of the Veil in the Temple and how it was rent much like the nebula. In the Gospels of Matthew and Mark we read

But Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and gave up his spirit.

Suddenly, the curtain of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom, the earth quaked, and the rocks were split. (Matt. 27:50-51 CSB17)

When the centurion, who was standing opposite him, saw the way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” (Mk. 15:39 CSB17)

There was unimaginable power in the explosion of that star that left the veil nebula as a remnant but truly, there was infinitely more power in the rending of the Veil in the Temple. In the rending of the star that left the nebula, dust and gases were separated and flung light years apart. But, in the rending of the Temple Veil, the separation between the LORD God and Man was removed even further than the diameter of any nebula or galaxy. God had created man “in his image” and he did so that a creature may have perfect fellowship with him. And yet man sinned and separated himself from the God who created him. And without action on God’s  part that separation would be eternal and irreconcilable and no amount of energy created by any action or effort of man or any astronomical object could restore that fellowship. The only one who could was God. But, his nature is Righteousness and Justice. Sin causes that eternal separation and cannot by God be just dismissed like nothing had happened. But, God’s nature includes Mercy and Love. In John’s Gospel we read, “for God so loved the world (κόσμον)[5] that he gave his onlybegotten Son so that all those who believe in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

The giving of his Son was the greatest and most powerful Merciful act of Love that also and necessarily satisfied entirely his Righteousness and Justice.

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[1] I am using the web, and in particular Wikipedia for much of the information on the nebula as the articles are extensively documented.

[2] One shot color camera, ZWO2600MC.

^[3] Zerubbabel’s and Herod’s Temples are commonly conflated and known as the Second Temple. However, the first century Jewish historian, Josephus, reported that Herod completely razed Zerubbabel’s Second Temple and built a completely new Third Temple (Josephus, Antiquities 15.390).

^[4] In this context Josephus is using the word to define everything, the whole universe, hence the translation.

[5] In this instance, as in Romans 5.12 κόσμον refers to the “world of men”.