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North-America and Pelican Nebulae

This large nebular complex is famous partly because it resembles Earth's continent of North America. It was discovered in the early 1890s by Max Wolf. To the right of the North America Nebula, cataloged as NGC 7000, is a less luminous Pelican Nebula, designated IC 5067-70.

The two emission nebula measure about 50 light-years across, are located about 1500 light-years away, and are separated by a dark absorption cloud designated LDN 935 which is also part of the whole nebula complex.

The nebulae can be seen with binoculars from a dark location. Look for a large nebular patch about 5 degrees north-east of bright star Deneb, in the constellation of Cygnus. 

It is still unknown which star or stars ionize the red-glowing hydrogen gas. (Text adapted from Astronomy Picture of the Day)

This image is a composite from black and white images taken with the Palomar Observatory's 48-inch (1.2-meter) Samuel Oschin Telescope as a part of the second National Geographic Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS II). The images were recorded on two type of glass photographic plates - one sensitive to red light and the other to blue and later they were digitized. Credit: Caltech, Palomar Observatory, Digitized Sky Survey.

In order to produce the color image seen here, I worked with data coming from 4 different photographic plates taken between 1990 and 1993. Original file is 14.264 x 15.429 pixels with a resolution of about 1 arcsec per pixel. The image shows an area of sky large 4,0° x 4,3° (for comparison, the full-Moon is about 0,5° in diameter). Color composite, copyright: Davide De Martin.

Available for Museum, Planetariums, Publishers and Authors in very high-resolution (220 megapixels). Please, e-mail me with your request.

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All images presented in this website are copyrighted © Davide De Martin (2005-2010) otherwise noted. Reproduction or distribution of these images is not permitted without written consent. See also commercial use of the images for further details or email me. Comments are welcome.
The astronomical images presented in this site were created with the help of the ESA/ESO/NASA FITS Liberator.