NGC7000 and IC5070: North America and the Pelican, 10 hour exposure

Close to the star Deneb in the Swan constellation, lies a huge nebula complex more than 5 moon wide.
The "Swan wall" (bottom left) is an active star forming region.
Observers often see a pelican (right) and the map of America (left). You could as well imagine a monster (no political insinuation!)
This is a false colour picture taken with 3 narrow band filters. It requires very long exposure.
C11 with Hyperstar (F/D 1.9) on a G11 mount. QHY8L camera.
Total exposure: 10 hours and 10 minutes performed during the last 3 nights.
61 subs of 600s: 22 in Ha, 19 in OIII, 22 in SII
Hubble palette with Ha as luminance

Comments and faves

  1. astrometry.net (20 months ago | reply)

    Hello, this is the blind astrometry solver. Your results are:
    (RA, Dec) center:(314.224711826, 44.1408807277) degrees
    (RA, Dec) center (H:M:S, D:M:S):(20:56:53.931, +44:08:27.171)
    Orientation:-179.72 deg E of N

    Pixel scale:5.67 arcsec/pixel

    Parity:Reverse ("Left-handed")
    Field size :2.30 x 1.51 degrees

    Your field contains:
    The star 57Cyg
    IC 5070 / Pelican nebula
    NGC 6997
    NGC 7000 / North America nebula

    View in World Wide Telescope

    -----
    If you would like to have other images solved, please submit them to the astrometry group.

  2. ★

    Counting Photons added this photo to his favorites. (20 months ago)

  3. Counting Photons (20 months ago | reply)

    Love the false colors!

  4. Trois_Merlettes (20 months ago | reply)

    Thanks! I also like the freedom it gives you!

  5. Astrocatou (20 months ago | reply)

    I would be interested to see it with less Ha weighting...
    Its a great image...a bit green for my taste..(!)
    regards

  6. Trois_Merlettes (20 months ago | reply)

    I used the Hubble palette but there is no problem to get it less lettuce like. For instance what about this?
    farm7.static.flickr.com/6008/6201621490_178a3 2e235_o.jpg

    Any better?

  7. Astrocatou (20 months ago | reply)

    Yes...I saw that...and yet the sky is actually a bit green still...
    (Just chatting here...no offense I hope.)
    I just think it (for me) is best to have all 3 channels of at least similar "weight"...though that is never really possible...I often tone down the Ha...or use it as Luminance
    And I do go back and selectively play with them all...( a lot !!)
    I just think if you can get better snr OIII data you will be able to be more flexible...

  8. Astrocatou (20 months ago | reply)

    Not a great comparison but here I felt I finally had a reasonable "balance"
    www.flickr.com/photos/daveh56/5965617455/in/s et-721576249...

  9. ★

    kojihide added this photo to his favorites. (20 months ago)

  10. Trois_Merlettes (20 months ago | reply)

    Ha was used as luminance. The problem in increasing the weight of SII is that noise arrives quickly as in your image. May be a good way is to balance the colours as you have done and then to apply a Gaussian blur (on RGB not on the luminance). I had just done that in the extreme case of the moon:
    www.flickr.com/photos/trois_merlettes/6136933 832/in/photo...

  11. John.R.Taylor (20 months ago | reply)

    Great fov & lots of detail.

    The SCNR tool in pixinsight is great for toning down a colour, just check the preserve luminance button and the weight you want and set to the channel you want to work on.

  12. ★

    eaglekisser added this photo to their favorites. (20 months ago)

  13. Trois_Merlettes (20 months ago | reply)

    Thanks John! I apply your suggestion; it does work we; see:
    www.flickr.com/photos/trois_merlettes/6201621 490/in/photo...

  14. ★

    Leica54 added this photo to her favorites. (20 months ago)

  15. Briipod (20 months ago | reply)

    Nice picture. The QHY8L comes with an IR cut filter. Did you just place the narrow band filters in front of the IR cut filter, or did you remove the IR cut filter first?

    Brian :-)

  16. Trois_Merlettes (20 months ago | reply)

    Thanks Brian. I did not remove the IR cut filter. Do you think this would increase significantly the Ha and SII signals?

  17. ★

    Brandon Mirenda, Shelby_Renee_, Aram G., aberforths-goats, and 7 other people added this photo to their favorites.

  18. This photo was invited and added to the Green Eden group.

  19. bonksie61 (14 months ago | reply)

    You are invited to add this image to :

     yabbadabbadoo
    If it isn't, please tag your photo "Yabbadabbadoo"

  20. Tanjica Perovic (14 months ago | reply)

    Excellent image.

    Thank you for sharing.

    Flickr
    Image from
    Green Eden

  21. ★

    I'm the master of puppets added this photo to their favorites. (9 months ago)

  22. Shikeli (4 months ago | reply)

    Hi
    Nice shot. But i suppose the QHY8L is a single shot color camera, isnt' it ?
    And if how is your workflow ? With what Software you work?
    I thougt you can not make narrowband filter fotos with a single shot color camera. And if you can please explain me how
    Thanks Steven

  23. Trois_Merlettes (4 months ago | reply)

    Yes Steven, this is done with a colour camera. It was binned 2x2 which is an option with this camera. The 4 coloured pixels are thus combined into a single one so that it works as a mono camera albeit with less sensitivity. I then placed in turn the three 2" narrow band filters in front of the camera window.

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