"Possum" Nebula in Cygnus (a part of North America & Pelican) (Dave Rust)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Cygnus (Cyg) · Contains: 57 Cyg · HD199178 · LBN 359 · LDN 933 · The star 57 Cyg

Powered byPixInsight

"Possum" Nebula in Cygnus (a part of North America & Pelican)

Acquisition type: Electronically-Assisted Astronomy (EAA, e.g. based on a live video feed)

Powered byPixInsight

"Possum" Nebula in Cygnus (a part of North America & Pelican)

Acquisition type: Electronically-Assisted Astronomy (EAA, e.g. based on a live video feed)

Check out this little critter!

“Possum” nebula is my name for this feature, which has no other identifier that I can find. I hope the identifier catches on!

𝘗𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘮 is within a group of nebulae just off the star Deneb and the constellation Cygnus, found in the northern sky.

It's challenging to perceive, but the entire "drawing" of the possum's face actually comes from dark non-glowing clouds floating in front of a huge, bright nebula of orange, ionized hydrogen. If the dark masses could be removed, nebulas North America, 𝘗𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘮, and Pelican would be all one big, relatively featureless nebula! As these glowing, and non-glowing clouds continue to drift in different directions, their shapes will eventually become non-recognizable.

As is typical in our infinite universe, change is slow and we will long be gone by the time this happens.

The extra bright blue star, 57 Cyg, may be behind a thin dark cloud and the huge flare is from the backlit gasses, although I'm sure my optics also contributed.

Real possum visit my garage when I'm out with the scope. A family of three will wonder inside. Look at me askance, and slowly turn around to leave.

It's good to be kept company on such evenings. I recall such encounters with 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘮, skunks, deer, and coyotes, all as I listen to jazz pianist Brand Mehldau riff on the Beatles' 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘗𝘳𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦.

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	8014923
PixInsight job	5S1F0NLIYLL7ZH4PG19G7U4P3VFNHG0I
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	20h53m24s.671
RA (top/left)	20h54m27s.100
RA (top/right)	20h52m20s.571
RA (bottom/right)	20h52m22s.957
RA (bottom/left)	20h54m28s.292

Dec (center)	+44°23′43″.94
Dec (top/left)	+44°40′19″.41
Dec (top/right)	+44°40′05″.51
Dec (bottom/right)	+44°07′06″.61
Dec (bottom/left)	+44°07′18″.76

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

"Possum" Nebula in Cygnus (a part of North America & Pelican)

"Possum" Nebula in Cygnus (a part of North America & Pelican)

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Sky plot

Histogram

		...
You have no new notifications.

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

"Possum" Nebula in Cygnus (a part of North America & Pelican)

"Possum" Nebula in Cygnus (a part of North America & Pelican)

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Sky plot

Histogram

Notifications

AstroBin is in READ ONLY mode

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Are you really sure?

Warning!

Warning!

Are you sure?

Report abuse

Slideshow settings

IOTD/TP stats (last [x] days)

Distribution of astrophotographers

Distribution of subject types

Distribution of data sources

Sorry

Sorry

Share

Upload new revision

Upload uncompressed source (XISF/FITS/PSD/TIFF)

Delete image and all its revisions?

Delete original image?

Delete all other versions?

Delete all revisions?

IOTD/TP stats

The following people like this image

The following people bookmarked this image

Warning

Flag malfunctioning thumbnails

Contains

Remove yourself as a collaborator

Plate-solving information