NGC 7000 - North American Nebula

This is technically my second attempt at imaging the North American Nebula or NGC 7000, the first was a 14-minute exposure from three years ago. Needless to say I am much happier with this image although there is plenty of room for improvement. The North America Nebula is a large emission nebula in Cygnus but its surface brightness is low, therefore, is not visible with the unaided eye. It is so big I could not get the whole object in my field of view with my setup.  My image looks more like the United States Nebula.  I like how the Cygnus Wall (Mexico) came out but wish I was able to show more of it.  This also happens to be where most of the star formation occurs.

I used an Astronomik UHC filter and hoped to get some Ha data to combine but the weather as far out as predictions are made is for clouds and thunder storms so I decided to go with this.  However, since most of the photons are from the red channel, I copied it (the red channel) into a separate layer and then added it back to the original image as a luminosity layer (25%) to enhance the image.

NGC 7000 - North American Nebula
Location: Happy Frog Observatory, Monroe, CT
Date: 7-12-18
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i(a), AstroPhotography Tool APT, Backyard EOS
Telescope: Orion ED80 80mm f/7.5 Apochromatic Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 600mm
f/7.5
Focal Reducer: Orion 0.8x Focal Reducer for Refractor Telescopes
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ (HEQ5)
Filter: Astrodon UV/IR, Astronomik UHC
Autoguiding: QHY-5L-II-M attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope with Helical Focuser
Exposure: 35 x 180s
ISO: 1600
Temp: 20 C

Post Processing: Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop, Gradient Exterminator, Astronomy Tools, StarTools, Lightroom
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