Emission nebulas in northern and central Cygnus, including the North America Nebula (NGC 7000) at lower left and the Gamma Cygni complex (IC 1318) at upper right. Deneb is the bright star at left, while Gamma Cygni itself is at upper right. However, the image works well turned 90° to portrait with Deneb at top. This is a stack of 8 x 2-minute exposures with the 200mm lens at f/2.8, and filter-modified Canon 5D MkII at ISO 1600, taken from home on May 30, 2017 as part of testing the Star Adventurer Mini tracker. All exposures tracked but not guided.
Cygnus starcloud area taken Sept. 13, 2007 for stack of 4 x 4 minute exposures with 135mm L-series lens at f/2.8 and Canon 20Da camera at ISO 800. Inckudes IC 1318 and NGC 6888.
This is the central area of Cygnus and its bright Milky Way starcloud surrounded by red nebulosity. At left is the star Sadr (gamma Cygni) with the complex of nebulosity catalogued as IC 1318. At centre is the distinct Crescent Nebula, NGC 6888, a expanding nebula created by winds from a hot Wolf-Rayet star. At bottom left is the star cluster Messier 29, though looking a little lost in the rich starfields here. At top is the cluster IC 1311, looking more obvious than M29 but not observed visually and included in the NGC catalog. Odd. At far right are the large and loose star clusters NGC 6883 and NGC 6871, the latter an obvious binocular sight. To the left of Sadr is the small cluster NGC 6910. The dark nebulas B145 and LDN 862 are at right. The small emission nebula at bottom is Sharpless 2-104. This is a stack of 6 x 6-minute exposures at ISO 1600 without a filter, blended with 8 x 12-minute exposures at ISO 3200 taken through the Optolong L-Enhance dual narrowband filter to really bring out the faint nebulosity. All were with the William Optics RedCat 51mm f/5 astrograph and red-sensitive Canon EOS Ra full-frame mirrorless camera. Blending the two sets of exposures brings out the nebulosity while retaining the more natural colours in the stars and background sky. All stacked, aligned and blended in Photoshop CC. Taken from home in the wee hours of the morning of May 15/16, 2020 before dawn’s light began to wash out the sky.
