Object Information                                            Imaging Details

The North America is a large diffuse emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus. Unlike many named cosmic objects, this nebula really look like its namesake. There are active star forming regions in the nebula - especially in a region known as the Cygnus Wall (the region which appears to form a mountain range along what appears to be Central and Western Mexico and Western Central America).

The North America Nebula is visible through larger aperture telescopes under dark skies. The Pelican Nebula requires photography.

This image was taken over two nights in October, 2007 at the White Sands Star Party near Alamogordo, NM. Skies were completely transparent; seeing was fair to poor.

Clicking on the image brings up a larger, more detailed image.

Telescope:

Orion ED80

Raws converted to Tiffs with Photoshop CS3. Images aligned and stacked using Nebulosity. Curves/levels adjustments also performed with Photoshop CS3. Noise reduced with Noise Ninja. This is a mosaic of two images (I cut off Guatamala by accident in the first image).