NGC 7000 (Caldwell 20) or North America Nebula
NGC 7000 or Caldwell 20 (also known as the North America Nebula) is a diffuse nebula in the constellation Cygnus. It has an apparent visual magnitude of 6 and its angular diameter is 120x100 arc-minutes. NGC 7000 lies at an estimated distance of 1800 light years. The Equinox 2000 coordinates are 20h 58.8m, +44° 20´ which makes NGC 7000 a Northern Hemisphere object that is best seen during the summer. The Caldwell Summer Star Chart shows the position of all Caldwell objects visible during that season. As one of the more famous objects in the Caldwell Catalog, it is commonly known as the North America Nebula.
The image above shows the uncropped view of NGC 7000 through the Nikkor 180mm lens (North is up). A 2x enlargement of this image appears to the right and is centered on "Florida" and the "Gulf of Mexico." The red nebula to the right is known as the Pelican Nebula (IC5070 and IC5067 ).
The North America Nebula is large, covering an area of more than four times the size of the Full Moon. However, its surface brightness is low, so it cannot be seen with the unaided eye unless viewed from an exceptionally dark location. Binoculars and telescopes with large fields of view (approximately 3°) will show it as a foggy patch of light under dark skies.
For images of NGC7000 through other telescopes or lenses, see More Views.
Wikipedia has additional information about NGC 7000.Visit the Caldwell Catalog Photo Gallery to see more deep sky objects from this catalog.
Technical Details
- Object: NGC 7000
- Other Names: Caldwell 20, North America Nebula
- Object Type: diffuse nebula
- Object Data: Apparent Magnitude = 6, Angular Size = 120x100 arc-minutes
- Object Position (Equinox 2000): 20h 58.8m, +44° 20´, Constellation = Cygnus
- Date/Time: 2012 Oct 15 at 03:19 UTC
- Location: Bifrost Astronomical Observatory, Portal, AZ
- Mount: Losmandy G-11 German Equatorial Mount
- Lens: Nikkor AI 180mm f/2.8
- Field of View: 7.1° x 4.7° at 4.9 arc-sec/pixel (web version: 27.6 arc-sec/pixel)
- Camera: Canon EOS 550D (Rebel T2i)
- Exposure: 5 x 240s, f/2.8, IE800
- File Name: NGC7000-N180-1w.jpg
- Processing (Photoshop CS6): Subtract Darks, Average Images, Curves, Levels, Masks
- Original Image Size: 3454 × 5179 pixels (17.9 MP); 11.5" x 17.3" @ 300 dpi
- Rights: Copyright 2012 by Fred Espenak. All Rights Reserved. See: Image Licensing.
