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North America Nebula - Ha
North America Nebula - Ha
North America Nebula - Ha
North America Nebula - OIII
North America Nebula - OIII
North America Nebula - SII
North America Nebula - SII
North America Nebula - Ha North America Nebula - OIII North America Nebula - SII
Photo Details

The North America Nebula…

Also known as NGC 7000 or Caldwell 20, the North America Nebula is located very close to the star Deneb. So close that I actually had to crop the images to not include it since it was so bright. Originally, it was located near the top left corner of the images. Here’s a link to the wiki if you’d like to learn more: wiki

A sight to behold especially when seen in its entirety. Each of these images are pieced together in a mosaic consisting of five individual image sets. Each individual image set has about one to three hours’ worth of data per filter (Ha, OIII, and SII). Typical exposure times of five to ten minutes per sub with the occasional twenty-minute sub. So far that’s somewhere between 15 to 45 hours’ worth of data for all the images combined. Since I live in a light polluted area this is still a work in progress but so far, I’m very happy with the results. I’ll soon be posting the combined color version. However, for now I would like to get a little more data to help cancel out some background noise before combining, especially on the OII and SII images. I should also note that these images have been scaled down from their original size of “7000 x 5456″ pixels. Just to put that in perspective, at a typical poster resolution of 150 ppi (pixel per inch) it would be 46.67″ x 36.37” or basically 4 foot by 3 foot… :)

Here’s a link to the full size Ha image

ATIK 16200 Mono CCD
Explore Scientific ED80 – StarField 0.8 Reducer (384mm Focal Length)
Baader Narrowband Filters (Ha, OIII, SII – all in the 7nm range)
Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro Equitorial Mount

Van Buren, Arkansas
Brandon Nichols