Instrument

12.5" RCOS @  ~f/9 (2880 mm fl) 0.643 arcsec / pixel.  Zoomify image scale is 1.28 to 3.42 arcsec / pixel.

Mount

Paramount ME

Camera

SBIG STL-11000 w/ internal filter wheel, AstroDon 6nm Ha Filter

Acquisition Data

8/26/2009 to 10/16/2009 Chino Valley, AZ... with CCDAutoPilot3 & CCDSoft.

Exposure

Ha   480 min. (16 x 30 min. bin 1x1)
Click here for an RGB natural color version.

Click here for a narrowband color mapped version.

Software

CCDSoft, CCDStack, Photoshop CS w/ the Fits Liberator plugin and Noel Carboni's actions.

PixFix32 (pre-beta) to repair hot/cold pixels and column defects.

CCDStack to calibrate, register, normalize, data reject, combine the sub exposures.

PhotoShop CS3 for on-linear stretching.

Comment

The image is rotated 130 degrees CCW.

This image shows the Cygnus Wall, in the southern part of the North American Nebula... NGC 7000. The emission nebula is in the constellation Cygnus, at a distance of about 1600 light years. When shown rotated 130 degrees CCW, the Cygnus Wall becomes the Cygnus Mountains. This area of the Nebula, correlates geographically to southern Mexico. The famous wall, an energized shock front, provides contrast to the adjacent dark "Gulf of Mexico" area, filled with dark gas and dust lanes.

Discovered by William Herschel on October 24th 1786 from Slough England.