Medium-sized image (1030x650) Full-sized image (2060x1300)
This two-image mosaic shows part of the vast nebulous region near Deneb, the bright star in Cygnus marking the swan's head. The image shows most of the North American Nebula (NGC 7000, on the left) and the Pelican Nebula (IC 5070, on the right). Unlike some celestial features, to me these two clearly show why they were given the names they have! This was almost an accidental mosaic...the image of the North American Nebula was taken in June 2003 at the 2003 Shingletown Star Party in Northern California. Nearly two months later, in August 2003, I imaged the Pelican Nebula (with the same telescope) from my backyard at home. After looking at both images, I realized there was enough overlap in them to put a mosaic together -- fortunately! Image details:
Takahashi FS60C at f/4.4 (with flattener/reducer for FS78)
StarlightXpress HX916 CCD Camera
Astro-Physics AP900GTO German Equatorial Mount
SBIG CFW-8A Color Filter Wheel
Each of the two panes is an LRGB image. The North American Nebula had a luminance made up of 120 minutes through a Shuler H-alpha filter, and 20 minutes through a red filter. RGB exposure times were 20:16:18 minutes. The Pelican Nebula had a luminance made up of 180 minutes through the H-alpha filter, and 26 minutes through a red filter. RGB exposure times were 26:22:24 minutes. Taken in June and August 2003, from Shingletown, California and my backyard in Escondido, California. Image capture and sequencing was done with MaximDL/CCD, sub-frames were Sigma combined with Russ Croman's Sigma plugin for MaximDL/CCD, and the final LRGB layering, mosaic assembly, and image adjustments were done in PhotoShop 7.0.