NGC7000 - The North America and Pelican Nebulae
Description: NGC7000, The North American Nebula and the Pelican Nebula, in the constellation of Cygnus. This image was taken on July 20, 2009 from Table Mountain Star Party in Washington state.
This image would benefit greatly from some time with a Hydrogen Alpha filter. Also, there is a reflection artifact in the "Gulf of Mexico" area in the North America Nebula. I have been seeing these reflections whenever I use my C8 Hyperstar with a bright object in the field. I have not yet had a chance to run down the source.
Equipment: The image was taken with an 8" Celestron C8 telescope on a Celestron CGE mount with a Hyperstar 3 lens. The camera was a QHY8PRO. The exposures were guided with Astro-Tech AT66ED refractor and Meade DSI Pro piggyback mounted on the C8, using PHD guiding software. Focus was done automatically with FocusMax and a MicroTouch focus motor on a FeatherTouch SCT focuser.
Exposures: 48x120 seconds binned 1x1.
Processing: Image capture was done with Maxim/DL 5. Calibration, registration, noise reduction and stacking were done in CCDStack. Curves, levels and zone processing were done in Photoshop CS2. Gradient processing was done with GradientXTerminator.
Click on image for full resolution.