This stunning mosaic captures the North America Nebula (NGC 7000) and the Pelican Nebula (IC 5070), two prominent emission nebulae in the constellation Cygnus. Located approximately 1,600 light-years from Earth, these nebulae are part of a larger region of ionized hydrogen gas (H II region), creating a vibrant and colorful display in the night sky.

The North America Nebula, named for its resemblance to the continent, features distinct regions resembling the Gulf of Mexico, the eastern seaboard, and the west coast. The Pelican Nebula, adjacent to the North America Nebula, also has a recognizable shape, resembling a pelican with its long beak and curved neck. This mosaic image, created by combining multiple frames, highlights the intricate details and structures within these nebulae, showcasing dark dust lanes, bright emission regions, and areas of active star formation.

Image Description and Details :

Several years ago I captured this beautiful region of Sky and called it “The Cosmic Continent”
Here is my latest Hubble Palette (SHO) version, a very wide view of The North America Nebula otherwise known as NGC7000 using data from Grand Mesa Observatory’s System 1a the William Optics Redcat together with a QHY16200A Monochrome CCD, this combination is giving a field of view of approximately 6 x 5 degrees


The William Optics Redcat with QHY16200A and its 7 position filter wheel is now available at Grand Mesa Observatory for subscription, see here for details.
https://grandmesaobservatory.com/equipment

In this Hubble Palette version the H-Alpha is mapped to green, SII is mapped to red and OIII is mapped to the blue channel. I removed the stars using Starnet and replaced them with the naturally colored stars from the broadband image, while the colors in this image are not the true colors, the narrowband filters used in the making of this Hubble Palette image reveal much more of the hidden gasses not visible in a broadband image.

Captured over 7 nights in May and June 2020 for a total acquisition time of 15 hours.

The North America Nebula (NGC 7000 or Caldwell 20) is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus that resembles the shape of North America and The Gulf Of Mexico. It lies at a distance of approximately 1800 light years away from us.

This image contains some very interesting areas such as The Cygnus Wall which is representative of Mexico and Central America, the nearby emission objects Pelican Nebula (IC5070) and the faint emission nebula IC5068

Technical Details
Captured and processed by: Terry Hancock
Location: GrandMesaObservatory.com Purdy Mesa, Colorado
May 5th, 20th, 21st, 25th, 29th, 31st, June 8th

HA 240 min 24 x 900 sec
OIII 255 min 25 x 900 sec
SII 225 min 23 x 900 sec
LRGB 180 min 9 x 300 sec

Filters by Chroma
Camera: QHY16200A
Gain 0, Offset 130 Calibrated with Flat, Dark and Bias Frames.
Optics: William Optics Redcat 51 APO @ F4.9
EQ Mount: Paramount MEII
Image Acquisition software Maxim DL6
Pre Processing in Pixinsight
Post Processed in Photoshop CC
Star Removal by Starnet

Copyright Information: Terry Hancock