Clic here for 36% size 1844x1436 (787 kB)
Clic here for 60% size 3074x2394 (1600 kB)
Clic here for 36% size 1844x1436 (755 kB)
Clic here for 60% size 3074x2394 (1900 kB)
This mosaic in mapped color shows the southern part of the famous North America nebula and the Pelican Nebula.
Ionized Hydrogen assigned to green, Oxygen-III assigned to blue and Sulphur-II assigned to red are forming a colorful and chaotic area.
The red-brown parts are shock fronts of ionized gas compressed by the light of luminous nearby stars.
16" cassegrain in corrected prime focus at f/3
In between them the "gulf" area is obscured by dark dust and gas clouds.
The chaotic nebula structures within this image are showing the active development of this area.
Find a close-up of the wall area in narrowband light here.
Find a wider view of the whole area in H-alpha light here.
North is up.
Technical Details
Optics
Mount
MK-100 GEM
Camera
SBIG STL-11000M at -20C, internal filter wheel
Filters
Baader 7-8 nm Ha, O-III, S-II (first light)
Date
July 10, 2007 - Sep 20, 2007.
Location
Wildon/Austria
Sky Conditions
mag 5 sky, temperature 5-15 C, seeing 2-3"
Exposure
S-II:Ha:O-III = 90:90:90 minutes per frame (30 minute sub-exposures), all 1x1.
Processing
Image aquisition in Maxim DL 4.65, image preprocessing in CCDStack; Fitsliberator; Hubble palette combine; curves, final tweaking, color balancing in Photoshop;