The North America & Pelican Nebulae in "modified" HST

The North America and Pelican nebulae are a pair of emission nebulae located approximately 1,800 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. Both nebulae are part of the same interstellar cloud of ionized hydrogen (H II region), that some sources say is being ionized by the bright star Deneb, although the source is actually unknown. The North America Nebula was discovered by William Herschel on October 24, 1786. In widefield images like this one, it is easy to see how these nebulae got their names.

 

 

Designations for the North America Nebula: NGC 7000, Caldwell 20, Sharpless 117 (Sh2-117)

Designations for the Pelican Nebula: IC5070, IC5067, Sharpless 117 (Sh2-117)

 

 

Lens: Pentax 6x7 SMC 150mm @f/5.6

Accessories: QSI-to-Pentax adapter; Dew control by Dew Buster; Alnitak Flat-Man; Gerd Neumann Aurora flat panel

Mount: Takahashi EM-200 Temma2

Camera: QSI583wsg CCD @ -10.0C

Guiding: Starlight Xpress Lodestar via PHD

Filters: Astrodon 5nm Ha, OIII, SII filters

Exposure: 9 x 20min. binned 1x1 each in Ha, OIII, SII

Acquisition: ImagesPlus 5.0 Camera Control

Processing: PixInsight 1.8; Adobe PhotoShop CS5; Noel Carboni’s Actions; HLVG

Date(s): Sept. 5, 6 & 9, 2013

SQM reading (begin - end): N1:18.87 – 19.07; N2:18.71 – 19.29; N3:18.62 – 19.06

Temperature (begin - end): N1:71.1ºF – 66.0ºF; N2:73.6ºF – 65.3ºF; N3:76.8ºF – 73.9ºF

Capture conditions: N1 - transparency: Avg 3/5; seeing: Good 4/5; N2 - transparency: Avg 3/5; seeing: Good 4/5; N3 - transparency: Below Avg 2/5; seeing: Good 4/5

Location: Hendersonville, TN, USA

Done