North American Nebula: Close Up and Personal
This is a section of the North American Nebula in Cygnus. The area of interest is the Mexico and Central American rift area.
Image Details: Combination of 17 x 4 minute images for 68 minutes of total exposure time at ISO 800. Takahashi TOA 130, Losmandy G11, Canon EOS 20Da, this time using darks and flats, but no in-camera noise reduction Captured 11/20/2005 from the North Houston Astronomy Club Neal dark sky site. Ambient temperature ~50 degrees F. Another image using my DSLR Workflow.
More Information from SEDS: "This nebula is lying 3 degrees from bright Deneb, Alpha Cygni. Some people claim it may be visible to the naked eye under good, dark conditions, and a preferred object for amateur astrophotographers. The distance to the North America Nebula is estimated at 1,600 light years. The North America Nebula was perhaps detected by William Herschel who cataloged a "faint, extremely large, diffuse nebulosity" near its place under his catalog number H V.37. John Herschel definitely found it and cataloged it as h 2096 and later as GC 4621. It was first photographed by Max Wolf on December 12, 1890. "
Processing Notes: I processed this image specifically to preserve detail in the "rift" area that is in the "Mexico/Central American" area of the North American Nebula.
Astronomy Pictures: Dick Locke's Astrophoto Gateway page....
Copyright © 2005, Dick Locke. All Rights Reserved.
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