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The North America (NGC 7000)
& Pelican Nebulas (IC 5067-70), in Cygnus
(Click on image for a higher resolution, 357kB file)
The constellation of Cygnus lies across the Milky Way band of stars in the late Spring through Fall skies. It appears rich in stars and star-forming regions (nebulas) because we are looking through the plane of our galaxy—in one of its densest regions. The North America and Pelican nebulas, just east of Deneb, are particularly appealing objects for photography because of their appearance. They are very large and require a short focal length telescope and large imaging area. For this image, I used my 6x7 medium format camera with the 780 mm focal length A-P refractor. Although somewhat underexposed, this image is a vast improvement over my earlier attempts (North America, Pelican). Compare with a CCD image.
| Date |
2002-05-15, 16. Clear, relatively dry. Air temp 48-56 F. |
| Scope |
Astro-Physics 130 f6 EDF with flattener on A-P GTO1200 mount; Pentax 6x7-II. ST-4 guided. |
| Exposures |
Fuji Provia 400F; 40, 60, 46 min, no filter |
| Processing |
Stacked in Registar; stretched in PhotoShop, smoothed with SGBNR |