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The North American Nebula is an incomprehensibly large complex of Hydrogen Alpha gas within our own Milky way. I read recently that this complex is approximately 6,000,000,000,000 (Trillion) miles wide! The nebula is named such because of its resemblence to North America, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico area. To its right is the aptly named Pelican nebula, do you see him there? Under very clear dark skies this nebula is easily visible to the naked eye. To find it, locate the brightest star in Cygnus (Deneb) which is the tip of the northern cross or the eye of Cygnus the swan, draw an imaginary line from Vega to deneb and go about two fingers at arms length and there it is, that bright patch that looks like a cloud is this nebula.
This photo is a single exposure taken with a lumicon hydrogen alpha widepass filter on hypersensitized tech pan film. The depth and contrast achieved with this combination are far superior to that taken with no filtration at all. Because I shoot with this filter and a dry air purge on the film, I can push the limits of exposure times to whatever I want, I've never suffered reciprocity failure with this combination before.
Technical Data
Scope: 400mm lens & OM-1 camera
Guiding: ST4
Film: Hypered tech pan
Composition: A single 90 minute exposure, contrast and brightness stretched in PS. |
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