| North American Nebula - DSLR narrow view |
The North American Nebula is easy to recognize by
its resemblance to our continent, with Mexico, the
Caribbean, and Florida clearly recognized. This
geographic shape is of course just coincidence.
From a dark sky site, I have observed the distinct
shape of this large faint nebula with the aid of special
nebula filters, that darken the background sky. The
nebula lies at a distance of 1,800 light years in the
constellation Cygnus, and spans a region 50 light
years across.
This image on the left combined 22 exposures, each 5
minutes, with a Canon 6D DSLR, modified by Hutech
to admit more red and H-alpha wavelenths of light. I
used an Astro-Physics Ricardi Honders 12"
astrograph, guided by an STi guider through the
Baader 60 mm VarioFinder guidescope, on top of an
Astrophysics 1200 GTO mount. The camera was
connected to the telescope with the Baader Protective
T-Ring with 2� nosepiece. Maxim DSLR
software was used for image acquisition and
stacking, followed by processing in Photoshop.
The photo below includes a wider area of both the
North American Nebula and tthe Pelican Nebula.
Both nebula are actually the same cloud of hydrogen
gas with the intervening region darkened by
obscuring interstellar dust. The Pelican faces the
North American Nebula, with its large beak pointing
towards the Yukatan Peninsula. My more detailed
image of the Pelican Nebula was obtained with a CCD
camera. You can also visit my earlier CCD image of
the North American Nebula for comparison.
This photo below was taken with a Pentax 135mm f2.
5 telephoto lens, Kodak 1000 film, and a 20 minute
exposure.
its resemblance to our continent, with Mexico, the
Caribbean, and Florida clearly recognized. This
geographic shape is of course just coincidence.
From a dark sky site, I have observed the distinct
shape of this large faint nebula with the aid of special
nebula filters, that darken the background sky. The
nebula lies at a distance of 1,800 light years in the
constellation Cygnus, and spans a region 50 light
years across.
This image on the left combined 22 exposures, each 5
minutes, with a Canon 6D DSLR, modified by Hutech
to admit more red and H-alpha wavelenths of light. I
used an Astro-Physics Ricardi Honders 12"
astrograph, guided by an STi guider through the
Baader 60 mm VarioFinder guidescope, on top of an
Astrophysics 1200 GTO mount. The camera was
connected to the telescope with the Baader Protective
T-Ring with 2� nosepiece. Maxim DSLR
software was used for image acquisition and
stacking, followed by processing in Photoshop.
The photo below includes a wider area of both the
North American Nebula and tthe Pelican Nebula.
Both nebula are actually the same cloud of hydrogen
gas with the intervening region darkened by
obscuring interstellar dust. The Pelican faces the
North American Nebula, with its large beak pointing
towards the Yukatan Peninsula. My more detailed
image of the Pelican Nebula was obtained with a CCD
camera. You can also visit my earlier CCD image of
the North American Nebula for comparison.
This photo below was taken with a Pentax 135mm f2.
5 telephoto lens, Kodak 1000 film, and a 20 minute
exposure.
Music: Coming to
America, by Neil Diamond
America, by Neil Diamond
