ScienceDownEast - ScienceDownEast Astrophotography - NGC 7000 North America Nebula (Latest images)

NGC7000 - North America Nebula (NGC 7000 North America Nebula)

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 20:18:37 -0400

Click on the image to view it at full resolution, then click again for actual size.

The NGC 7000 The North America Nebula is a large emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, named because its outline resembles the continent of North America in wide-field images. It lies along the rich star fields of the Milky Way near the bright star Deneb and forms part of a broader complex of glowing hydrogen gas. The nebula shines primarily from hydrogen-alpha emission, produced when ultraviolet radiation from nearby hot, young stars ionizes the gas and it recombines. NGC 7000 is separated from the neighboring Pelican Nebula (IC 5070) by a dark dust lane often called the “Gulf of Mexico,” where dense interstellar dust obscures the background starlight and nebular glow. Within the nebula are regions of active star formation sculpted by stellar winds and radiation, creating bright ridges, arcs, and cavities embedded in the larger cloud. [general astronomy reference/Wikipedia-style summary]

Total image time was 3.95 hours.

Moon Phase

Waxing Gibbous phase (very nearly full, about 99% illuminated

Exposure

237 x 60 sec

Gain

200

Camera

ZWO SeeStar S30 [1920 x 1080] IMX662

Optics

ZWO SeeStar S30 EQ mode [Focal length 150, Aperture 30 mm, f/5]

Guiding

Controller

Filter

Light pollution filter (OIII 30nm/Hα 20nm)

Location

Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.

Date

Jan 2, 2026

Processing

Processed in PixInsight.

WeightedBatchPreprocessing Script [ 1x drizzle ]

BlurXTerminator

GraXpert

NoiseXTerminator

StarXTerminator

Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch on both the stars and starless images

HDRMultiScaleTransform on the Starless image

PixelMath to recombine the images

CurveTransformation

Date: January 14, 2026

NGC 7000 North America Nebula (NGC 7000 North America Nebula)

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 17:50:04 -0300

20 hours exposure with data from July 31-Aug. 2, 2020.

This 7th version of the North America Nebula (NGC 7000 or Caldwell 20) is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, close to Deneb (the tail of the swan and its brightest star). The shape of the nebula resembles that of the continent of North America. The North America Nebula covers an area of more than four times the size of the full moon, but its surface brightness is low, so normally it cannot be seen with the unaided eye.

This image taken while the moon was between 90-100% illuminated with the Triad Ultra Quad Narrow-Band filter, which permitted shooting from with light-polluted suburbia.

Exposure	20 hrs No Filter
ISO	800
Camera	Nikon Z7 [8856 x 5504]
Optics	Skywatcher Esprit 120mm Refractor, 840 mm focal length
Filter	Radian Triad Ultra Quad-Band Narrowband Filter
Guiding	Phd2 using a ZWO 224MC on an Orion 60x240mm Guide scope
Controller	Kstars on an Odroid-N2 (Raspberry Pi clone)
Location	Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.
Date	2020-08-02
Processing	Processed in PixInsight and Lightroom.

Date: March 26, 2025

North America Nebula Aug-02-2020 (NGC 7000 North America Nebula)

Mon, 03 Aug 2020 19:29:36 -0300

12 hours exposure with data from July 31-Aug. 2, 2020.

This 6th version of the North America Nebula (NGC 7000 or Caldwell 20) is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, close to Deneb (the tail of the swan and its brightest star). The shape of the nebula resembles that of the continent of North America. The North America Nebula covers an area of more than four times the size of the full moon, but its surface brightness is low, so normally it cannot be seen with the unaided eye.

This image taken while the moon was between 90-100% illuminated with the Triad Ultra Quad Narrow-Band filter, which permitted shooting from with light-polluted suburbia.

Exposure	71*600 sec
ISO	800
Camera	Nikon Z7 [8856 x 5504]
Optics	Skywatcher Esprit 120mm Refractor, 840 mm focal length
Filter	Radian Triad Ultra Quad-Band Narrowband Filter
Guiding	Phd2 using a ZWO 224MC on an Orion 60x240mm Guide scope
Controller	Kstars on an Odroid-N2 (Raspberry Pi clone)
Location	Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.
Date	2020-08-02
Processing	Processed in PixInsight and Lightroom.

Date: March 26, 2025

NGC 7000 July-28-2020 86x300 (NGC 7000 North America Nebula)

Thu, 30 Jul 2020 20:54:17 -0300

7 hours exposure with data from July 28.

This 5th version of the North America Nebula (NGC 7000 or Caldwell 20) is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, close to Deneb (the tail of the swan and its brightest star). The shape of the nebula resembles that of the continent of North America. The North America Nebula covers an area of more than four times the size of the full moon, but its surface brightness is low, so normally it cannot be seen with the unaided eye.

Exposure	86*300 sec
ISO	800
Camera	Nikon Z7 [8856 x 5504]
Optics	Skywatcher Esprit 120mm Refractor, 840 mm focal length
Filter	Radian Triad Ultra Quad-Band Narrowband Filter
Guiding	Phd2 using a ZWO 224MC on an Orion 60x240mm Guide scope
Controller	Kstars on an Odroid-N2 (Raspberry Pi clone)
Location	Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.
Date	2020-07-28
Processing	Processed in PixInsight and Lightroom.

Date: March 26, 2025

NGC 7000 July-28-2020 63x300 (NGC 7000 North America Nebula)

Wed, 29 Jul 2020 22:14:16 -0300

The 4th version of a portion of the North America Nebula (NGC 7000). 4 hours exposure with an extra hour of data from July 28.

The North America Nebula (NGC 7000 or Caldwell 20) is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, close to Deneb (the tail of the swan and its brightest star). The shape of the nebula resembles that of the continent of North America. The North America Nebula covers an area of more than four times the size of the full moon, but its surface brightness is low, so normally it cannot be seen with the unaided eye.

Exposure	50*300 sec
ISO	800
Camera	Nikon Z7 [8856 x 5504]
Optics	Skywatcher Esprit 120mm Refractor, 840 mm focal length
Filter	Radian Triad Ultra Quad-Band Narrowband Filter
Guiding	Phd2 using a ZWO 224MC on an Orion 60x240mm Guide scope
Controller	Kstars on an Odroid-N2 (Raspberry Pi clone)
Location	Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.
Date	2020-07-28
Processing	Processed in PixInsight and Lightroom.

Date: March 26, 2025

NGC 7000 May-18-2020 (NGC 7000 North America Nebula)

Sun, 05 Jul 2020 20:33:58 -0300

The 3rd version of a portion of the North America Nebula (IC 7000). 3 hours exposure. Minimal editing, with noise reduction applied.

Exposure	35*300 sec
ISO	800
Camera	Nikon Z7 [8856 x 5504]
Optics	Skywatcher Esprit 120mm Refractor
Filter	Radian Triad Ultra Quad-Band Narrowband Filter
Location	Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.
Date	2020-06-18
Processing	Processed in PixInsight and Lightroom.

Date: March 26, 2025

North America Nebula (IC 7000) v2 (NGC 7000 North America Nebula)

Sat, 20 Jun 2020 22:34:22 -0300

The 2nd version of a portion of the North America Nebula (IC 7000). I combined 2 sets of images with significantly different rotations, giving the lower left portion of this image more noise. This result now includes 48x5 min. subframes (4 hours) including 9 images from SCO using a Triad Ultra Quad Filter on an Esprit 120 mm refractor with a Nikon Z7. Minimal editing, with little noise reduction applied although an arcsinh stretch was applied.

4 hours total exposure.

Exposure	48*300 sec
ISO	800
Camera	Nikon Z7 [8856 x 5504]
Optics	Skywatcher Esprit 120mm Refractor
Filter	Radian Triad Ultra Quad-Band Narrowband Filter
Location	Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.
Date	2020-06-20
Processing	Processed in PixInsight and Lightroom.

Date: March 26, 2025

North America Nebula (IC 7000) (NGC 7000 North America Nebula)

Thu, 18 Jun 2020 14:11:57 -0300

A portion of the North America Nebula (IC 7000). Can you see where I combined 2 sets of images with significantly different rotations, giving the lower left portion of this image more noise as it contains fewer sub-frame images? Minimal editing, with no noise reduction applied yet.

Exposure	39*300 sec
ISO	800
Camera	Nikon Z7 [8856 x 5504]
Optics	Skywatcher Esprit 120mm Refractor
Filter	Radian Triad Ultra Quad-Band Narrowband Filter
Location	Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.
Date	2020-06-17
Processing	Processed in PixInsight and Lightroom.

Date: March 26, 2025