North American Nebula & Pelican Nebula in Cygnus
Return to Home Page Return to Caldwell Objects
Return to Herschel 400 (2) Return to Galactic Nebula
Return to Other Objects
Return to Herschel 400 (2) Return to Galactic Nebula
Return to Other Objects
North American & Pelican Nebulae
The morning of August 10, 2019, after the setting of the moon provided a transparent sky
over my house, I turned my telescope to the North American Nebula.
It took me over two hours and four separate drafts, at the eyepiece, that would eventually
go into the final drawing of the elusive North American Nebula (NGC 7000). With the
155mm Refractor I used every trick in the book to tease out the subtle nebulosity of this
large celestial object. NGC 7000 covers an area of three to four full moons, so I was
forced to use the widest field-of-view that I could get. A 41mm Panoptic, along with a
visual reducer of 0.75x, gave me a working field of 3.22 degrees at the eyepiece. Still
not wide enough -- so I ended up dividing the area into quarters and went to work with
pencil and paper.
The drawing would not have been possible without using nebula filters. I rotated between
three specialized nebula filters (UHC, Hydrogen beta and Oxygen III). The UHC worked
best for the North American Nebula, but the Hydrogen beta provided me with brief
glimpses of the nearby Pelican Nebula (IC 5067-70) which I doubt I would have found
with just the UHC and Oxygen III filters.
Also, marked in the drawing is the “Little Orion Asterism” and the very faint Open
Cluster Cr 428. Keep in mind that the drawing is mirror-reversed due to the use of a
telescope diagonal.
over my house, I turned my telescope to the North American Nebula.
It took me over two hours and four separate drafts, at the eyepiece, that would eventually
go into the final drawing of the elusive North American Nebula (NGC 7000). With the
155mm Refractor I used every trick in the book to tease out the subtle nebulosity of this
large celestial object. NGC 7000 covers an area of three to four full moons, so I was
forced to use the widest field-of-view that I could get. A 41mm Panoptic, along with a
visual reducer of 0.75x, gave me a working field of 3.22 degrees at the eyepiece. Still
not wide enough -- so I ended up dividing the area into quarters and went to work with
pencil and paper.
The drawing would not have been possible without using nebula filters. I rotated between
three specialized nebula filters (UHC, Hydrogen beta and Oxygen III). The UHC worked
best for the North American Nebula, but the Hydrogen beta provided me with brief
glimpses of the nearby Pelican Nebula (IC 5067-70) which I doubt I would have found
with just the UHC and Oxygen III filters.
Also, marked in the drawing is the “Little Orion Asterism” and the very faint Open
Cluster Cr 428. Keep in mind that the drawing is mirror-reversed due to the use of a
telescope diagonal.