The North America Nebula ... NGC 7000

The North America Nebula ... NGC 7000
Date: July 21, 2019
This is an emission nebula (which has a conspicuous resemblance to the North America Continent) in the constellation Cygnus the Swan and very near the bright star Deneb (Which is one of the 3 bright stars composing the 'Summer Triangle'). It is large, covering an area of more than four times the size of the full moon; but its surface brightness is low, so normally it cannot be seen with the unaided eye. It is about 1,600 light-years away. This is a 78-minute exposure. I had to toss an additional 40 minutes of data due to passing clouds contamination and the stacking software PixInsight tossed out an additional 19 frames (38 mnutes). I originally stacked the frames in Deep Sky Stacker but after stacking PI, I combined the two products using the image from PI as a 'Color' layer over the DSS image for the final image.

The 'Techy Stuff' (For those who want to know)
Telescope: Orion ED80T CF Triplet Apochromatic Refractor
Orion Field Flattener for Short Refractors
Mount: Celestron AVX
Mount Control Software: Celestron PWI
Camera: Altair 'Hypercam 294c Pro tec' with the sensor Temperature setting at 23°F (-5°C)
Filter: Baader UHC-S L Filter for City Light Suppression
Capture Software: SharpCap Pro
Settings: RAW14 Binning 1x1 ... Fits files ... Gain: 10000
Light Frames Used: 39 at 120 seconds
Dark, Flat and Bias Frames: 20 ea
Guiding: Orion StarShoot AutoGuider & 60mm Guide Scope
Guiding: PHD2 (RMS Error: 0.22px)
Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker & PixInsight
Post Processing: PixInsight & Photoshop CC
Seeing conditions: 7 (based on 0-10 where 10 is crystal clear)
Outside Temperature: 80°F
Bortle Light-Pollution zone: 4.5 (can barely see the Milky Way)
Date: July 21, 2019 from 10:30 pm - 12:30 am
Location: Backyard, Savannah GA

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