What is The NGC 7000 North America Nebula?
The magnificent NGC 7000 North America Nebula is one of the night sky’s most beautiful and awe-inspiring objects. It’s a star-forming region that is as big as at least 4 times the Full Moon.
The North America Nebula (NGC 7000 or Caldwell 20) is an emission nebula found in the Cygnus constellation in the northern celestial hemisphere of our Milky Way Galaxy. It glows with vibrant colors due to the ionization of interstellar gas caused by radiation emitted by new stars. The nebula lies at a distance of 1,800 light-years from Earth and spans a region of 90 light-years in diameter.
William Herschel was the first to observe and discover the nebula on October 24, 1786. John Herschel, his son, cataloged the North America Nebula on August 24, 1829.
NGC 7000 The North America Nebula is a neighbor of IC 5070 The Pelican Nebula. The North America/Pelican Nebula complex is known as Sharpless 2-117 (Sh2-117).
What Causes The North America Nebula To Form?
The North America Nebula is formed when a star explodes. The North America Nebula comprises many different types of stars, dust, and gas. The gas within the nebula contains elements such as hydrogen and helium, which are created when stars die. This gas helps to create an interesting pattern within the nebula.
The North America Nebula is mainly composed of hydrogen gas and cosmic dust. However, it does contain small amounts of other elements, including oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen.
The nebula’s color depends on its chemical composition and degree of ionization. The more hydrogen atoms present, the redder the nebula will appear.
What Are The Other Objects Surrounding The North America Nebula?
The other well-known objects in the neighborhood of the North America Nebula are IC 5070 Pelican Nebula, IC 5146 Cocoon Nebula, NGC 6888 Crescent Nebula, Open Cluster NGC 6997, and M39 Open Cluster.
In the past, I’ve photographed the Open Cluster NGC 6997 to get the NGC 7000 North America Nebula and IC 5070 Pelican Nebula beautifully framed in one photograph. The telescope I used then was a William Optics Zenithstar 61.
Why is it called the North America Nebula?
The North America Nebula has an impressive structure and is recognizable by its resemblance to the continent of North America. The region of dust looks like the Gulf of Mexico.
The German astronomer-astrophotographer Max Wolf was the first to photograph this nebula in 1890 and gave it the name “North America Nebula” because of its shape. Max Wolf was also an essential colleague of Edward Emerson Barnard, an American astronomer-astrophotographer, who was much involved in studying the Milky Way.
How to spot and photograph the North America Nebula?
You can spot the North America Nebula in the constellation Cygnus close to Deneb (the tail of the Swan and its brightest star).
NGC 7000 has an apparent magnitude of 4.
The nebula can already be seen with the naked eye/binoculars in dark skies, but it is best viewed using a telescope. When photographing the nebula, it is important that it is located in a dark sky to capture the most detail possible.
The North America Nebula is an excellent target to photograph using a narrowband filter like for example the STC Astro Duo-Narrowband, the ZWO Duo-Band or the Optolong L-Enhance when using a One Shot Color Camera. Even in heavy light polluted skies. A narrowband filter is ideal for capturing the reddish color, caused by hydrogen gas.
Astrophotography
The North America Nebula is one of the most popular targets for astrophotographers.
I imaged this nebula for the first time with an unmodified DSLR, the Canon EOS 750D, and a small wide-field refractor, the William Optics Zenithstar 61 (see NGC 7000 North America Nebula (1) and (2)). To beat the light pollution, I used the Astronomik CLS Clipin-filter (anti-light pollution filter)
The second image, NGC 7000 (2) is a re-process I did with the same data, equipment, and software as (1) but I played a bit with the colors and darkened the background more. The redder colors may look more appealing in the eye of the beholder but the darker background causes less visibility of the nebula. Picture (1) looks more washed out but the nebula pops much more out than in (2). At that time, my processing skills were not as evolved as they are now. NGC 7000 was the second Deep Sky photo I did after M42 The Orion Nebula, my first astrophoto ever, see Example 1 of the Orion Nebula in my portfolio https://beatriceheinze.com/portfolio/m42-the-orion-nebula-2/.
Image details (1) & (2)
- Telescope: William Optics Zenithstar 61
- Field Flattener: F-Flat61
- Mount: Sky-Watcher NEQ5 Synscan GoTo
- Camera: Canon EOS750D
- Filter: Astronomik CLS Clipin-filter (anti-light pollution)
- Intervalometer: Photospecialist
- Software: Astro Pixel Processor (stacking & processing)
No guiding
Data captured in the nights: 02/06/2018 & 10/06/2018 => Total exposure time: 2.19 hours
Bortle class 6 (Bright Suburban Sky)
Conclusion
The NGC 7000 North American Nebula is a beautiful, fascinating object. And it’s a target I can recommend even to novice astrophotographers. You can get decent results even with an ordinary budget DSLR that is not Astro-modified. Even without a duo-narrowband filter. Simply because the object, the NGC 7000 North American Nebula, is quite bright and large by itself.
