Object Description: NGC 7000, the North America Nebula, is located in the constellation of Cygnus. It is a very large area of emission nebulosity extending some 2.5 degrees to the east of Deneb. The NAN is well named for its shape - which is easily recognizeable as resembling the continent of North America. It was discovered in the early 1890s during experiments into wide field astrophotography. Several areas of nebulosity can be seen surrounding NGC 7000 including IC 5070, the Pelican Nebula to the west and IC 5068 to the south. The Skull Nebula can also be seen between the North America and the Pelican nebulae. The Pelican Nebula (also known as IC 5070) is an HII region associated with the North America Nebula. The nebula resembles a pelican in shape, hence the name. The Pelican Nebula is divided from its brighter, larger neighbor, the North America Nebula, by a molecular cloud filled with dark dust. This nebula is much studied because it has a particularly active mix of star formation and evolving gas clouds. The light from young energetic stars is slowly transforming cold gas to hot and causing an ionization front gradually to advance outward. Particularly dense filaments of cold gas are seen to still remain. Millions of years from now this nebula might no longer be known as the Pelican, as the balance and placement of stars and gas will leave something that appears completely different. Date Captured: 8/17/2006 through 9/13/2006 Equipment Used: - TAK FSQ - STL-6303, self-guided, 10-second guiding integrations - Astrodon narrowband filters - FLI-PDF - Paramount ME Exposures (MaxIM for camera control and capture): - 7.5 hours of OIII - 7.5 hours of SII - 5.5 hours of Ha ...all subs were 30 minute subs Processing: CCDStack: - calibration - bloom removal - channel sub registration - normalization and data rejection - mean combine - gentle deconvolution, where appropriate - hot/cold pixel removal - DDP, no sharpening - registration of final sub masters Photoshop CS2: - color creation: full tri-color narrowband variations, Ha/sG/OIII bi-color version - minor star bloom repair - curves for adjusting color treatment to taste