North American Nebula and Deneb

August 31, 2006

North_american_neb_epsilon_2frames_4x15mins_small_8606

Provided by: Richard Best
Summary author: Richard Best

The photo above shows the North American Nebula (NGC7000), which is a very large emission nebula within the Milky Way, in the constellation of Cygnus the Swan. The bright star to the top right is Deneb, the brightest star in Cygnus -- the tail of the swan. Deneb is also one of the stars that form the summer triangle (together with Vega and Altair). This familiar triangle currently resides high in the sky after sundown.

Photo details: This is a two-frame mosaic, consisting of 4x15 minute subframes, taken through a Hydrogen Alpha narrow-band filter. The frames were calibrated and merged in Photoshop. A SBIG STL11000M dedicated astro camera was used and was coupled to a Takahashi Epsilon180ED at my observatory in Lewes, East Sussex, UK. Photo captured on June 8, 2006 -- the Moon was one half illuminated at the time.

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