{"id":2521,"date":"2026-05-04T10:24:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T16:24:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/albersheim.com\/wordpress\/?post_type=blog_post&p=2521"},"modified":"2026-05-04T10:24:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T16:24:39","slug":"north-america-in-space","status":"publish","type":"blog_post","link":"https:\/\/albersheim.com\/wordpress\/blog-post\/north-america-in-space\/","title":{"rendered":"North America in Space"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This wide field view, taken with a 243mm lens and a DSLR camera with full-frame sensor, contains the North America nebula (NGC 7000) and the Pelican nebula (IC 5070), displayed in an HOO color palette.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Distances and sizes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The North America nebula is 2590 light-years (15.228 quadrillion miles) from earth and spans 140×90 light-years (823×529 trillion miles). The Pelican nebula is 1800 light-years (10.6  quadrillion miles) from earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imaging and Processing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to the time of year, these objects were only imageable for just over 5 hours, having to wait until midnight for the nebula to rise up high enough. I captured 60 images of 5 minutes each, but only 54 images of these were useable. I calibrated these with 30 biases, 30 darks, 30 flats, and 30 dark flats. I used  SPCC for color correction, DynamicCrop to remove the vignetting caused from using the step-down rings for the 2\u201d L-Enhance filter. I used Graxpert to remove gradients, noise and blur exterminators to remove noise and sharpen the stars and nebula. I then separated the stars from the nebulous background and used Narrowband Normalization with masking and curves to emphasize the reds (hydrogen) and blues (oxygen). I recombined the stars, then finished off the image in Photoshop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Equipment:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Lens: SV555 243mm APO Astrograph at f\/4.5<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Camera: Canon RP DSLR with full-size sensor<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Mount: SkyWatcher Star Adventurer GTi<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Filter: Optolong L-Enhance, using step-down rings, under Bortle-6 skies with full moon<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Guiding: ZWO ASI120mm Mini Monochrome Guide Camera with the ZWO 30mm f\/4 Guide Scope<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Automation: ZWO ASIAir Mini<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This wide field view, taken with a 243mm lens and a DSLR camera with full-frame sensor, contains the North America nebula (NGC<\/p>\n

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