The North American Nebula: Which target is more fitting as a first light for my telescopes new home in the heart of Texas. Already in the first week, I could gather more light than the whole first half of 2024!
This rendition of this classic target is done in SII, H-alpha and OIII mapped to RGB in a classic Hubble Palette. Having collected the most integration time for such a bright target, I never had the pleasure to process such a clean image with this much detail and little noise.
I started this project in May in Switzerland and since then, due to bad weather, I could not add a single hour of integration till my telescope was installed at Starfront Observatories end of July. The lack of unexpected events after my telescope was a pleasant surprise. There will be soon an article about the whole process of going remote where I’ll describe my personal experience, from researching the gear, shipping and declaring customs to the actual experience of having a remote telescope.
This image was also my first Top Pick on Astrobin which is when it passes the two first stages of the 3-stage reviewing process.
Technical Details
Frames:
- Red: 40×30″ (20′)
- Blue: 40×30″ (20′)
- Green: 40×30″ (20′)
- H-alpha: 87×300″ (7h 15′)
- OIII: 71×300″ (5h 55′)
- SII: 65×300″ (5h 25′)
Total Integration: 19h 35′
Equipment:
- Sky-Watcher Esprit 100ED
- ZWO ASI2600MM Pro
- ZWO AM5
You can find this image also posted on my astrobin profile.
Sky Plot
The North American Nebula is located in the summer constellation of Cygnus, very close to the bright star Deneb which is visible to the naked eye even in the most light-polluted cities. You can use this interactive plot to explore the surrounding area of Cygnus which is full of gases and interesting deep-sky objects.