Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cygnus (Cyg)  ·  Contains:  55 Cyg  ·  56 Cyg  ·  57 Cyg  ·  60 Cyg  ·  B349  ·  B350  ·  B352  ·  B353  ·  B355  ·  IC 5068  ·  IC 5070  ·  NGC 6989  ·  NGC 6996  ·  NGC 6997  ·  NGC 7000  ·  North America Nebula  ·  Pelican Nebula  ·  Sh2-117  ·  The star 55Cyg  ·  The star 56Cyg  ·  The star 57Cyg  ·  The star 60Cyg
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North America and the Pelican Nebula, Andrei Gusan
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North America and the Pelican Nebula

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
North America and the Pelican Nebula, Andrei Gusan
Powered byPixInsight

North America and the Pelican Nebula

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Description

"The American Pelican"

On the left, bright emission outlined by dark, obscuring dust lanes seems to trace a continental shape, lending the popular name North America Nebula to the emission region cataloged as NGC 7000. To the right, just off the North America Nebula's east coast, is IC 5070, whose profile suggests the Pelican Nebula. The two bright nebulae are about 1,500 light-years away, part of the same large and complex star forming region. At that distance, the 6 degree wide field of view would span 150 light-years.

This cosmic portrait uses narrow band images to highlight the bright ionization fronts in false color, also known as Hubble Palette, the same technique used by the famous Hubble Space Telescope. After more than 11 hours of exposure using a monochrome camera with Hydrogen Alfa (red), Sulphur (green) and Oxygen (blue) filters ended up with three black and white pictures, one for each filter, representing the gas in the nebula. The first picking up light in the frequency of Sulphur ions (assigned to the color red), the second Hydrogen (green), the third Oxygen ions (blue). Switching the red channel (Hydrogen) with green (Sulphur) reveals details that the human eye cannot easily see, if at all.

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North America and the Pelican Nebula, Andrei Gusan