This is a four panel mosaic of the North America and Pelican Nebulae.  I stacked and processed it entirely in  Pixinsight with a faux SHO palette.  I utilized GHS to the best of my ability at this time.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did imaging and processing this wonderful creation in deep space.

I’m pretty proud of this image. You’re looking into the structure of our Milky Way. My image consists of four separate images stitched together to form a mosaic of several dark and bright nebulae. The North America (NGC 7000) and Pelican (IC 5070) Nebulae are prominently featured.  I encourage you to zoom in and see the intricate details.  

The North America nebula was disovered from English skies by William Herschel in 1786. His son, John Herschel, entered it into his father’s catalog in 1829.  It wasn’t named North America until 1890 when the German astronomer, Max Wolf, recognized its shape in his telescope. The NA nebula, if you could see it with your eyes, covers the span of 10 full moons in the sky. It appears a faint and foggy patch of light in a telescope. With the right tools, as we can see here, you can easily make out the Gulf of Mexico and the Central America outline. 

As of 2020, the North America nebula was measured at about 2,590 light years away based on 395 star distances meausred deep within it. It is approximately 90 light years “tall” from “north to south”.  It is unknown how deep it could be, as we cannot see all the way through it. 

The Pelican nebula is located center right of the North American nebula and is separated by a dark molecular cloud band of interstellar dust/stardust. The Pelican, like the North America, is an emmission nebula located in the constellation of Cygnus (the Swan).  The dark stardust in front of the bright emmission nebula forms the pelican head shape. An emmission nebula is comprised of ionized gas which emits light in several wavelengths. Basically, it produces its own light.  

My image also contains 197,286 suns/stars. Are we looking at any civilizations or simple life in an image such as this?  My mind flirts with the the thought. Either way, the Universe is beautiful and unfathomably vast.