The Cygnus and Lyra area of the northern summer Milky Way, including the original Kepler FIeld. Deneb is at left, Vega at right. This is a stack of 5 x 10 minute exposures with the Sigma 50mm lens at f/2.8 and filter-modified Canon 5D Mark II at ISO 800. Taken as test of the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer tracking platform.
Cygnus nebulosity. Film and exposure not recorded. Likely Ektachrome 200 slide film.
A framing of the major areas of bright and dark nebulosity in Cygnus and Cepheus, showing pink emission nebulas contrasting with dark dusty regions in the Cygnus and into the Perseus arms of the Milky Way. Cepheus is at upper left; northern Cygnus is at right, with the bright Cygnus starcloud right of centre. The reddening (or yellowing) effects of interstellar dust in the spiral arms of the Milky Way is apparent. The bright blue star Deneb is left of centre. Just below it and at centre is the North America Nebula, NGC 7000, and its adjacent companion Pelican Nebula, IC 5070. The Gamma Cygni nebulosity complex, IC 1318, is right of centre. The dark Funnel Cloud Nebula in northern Cygnus is at centre. The Veil Nebula supernova remnant, NGC 6960 and 6992-5, is at lower right. The small Cocoon Nebula, IC 5146, is below and left of centre. The Elephant Trunk Nebula, IC 1396, with the adjacent orange "Garnet Star" (aka Mu Cephei) in Cepheus is at upper left. The area is dotted with other smaller emission nebulas in southern Cepheus. This is a blend of: 14 x 4-minute exposures with the Canon RF28-70mm lens at 43mm and f/2.8 and with the camera at ISO 1600 -- blended with 14 x 4-minute exposures at ISO 3200 with the lens at f/2, with the set taken just prior with the Moon still up, but with an Astronomik 12nm H-Alpha clip-in filter in place, to pick up just the red H-Alpha nebulosity. The camera was the red-sensitive Canon EOS Ra. For the normal "non-H-Alpha" images, the lens was equipped with the 95mm URTH Night light pollution rejecton filter to help enhance the nebulosity even in the broadband images. The H-Alpha set brought out the faintest areas of nebulosity. I shot this from home August 5, 2022 on a very fine dark transparent night with the field straight overhead. The camera was on the Star Adventurer Mini tracker. All stacking, alignment, blending and processing done in Photoshop. The H-Alpha set was processed to be monochrome but was blended into the colour stack using a Lighten mode and colorized pinky red with a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. Curves and color grading applied to both sets in part using luminosity masks generated with TK8 Actions and Lumenzia. A mild Orton glow effect added with Luminar AI.
