North America Nebula
About this celestial object
A longer look at NGC 7000 deepens the subtle brightness gradients of the nebular landscape.
The expansive emission nebula in Cygnus shows bright H II regions and high-contrast dark lanes that define its characteristic outline.
292 short exposures (just under 49 minutes) at 20.9° altitude and 73% humidity were taken with 250 mm f/5 to trace the field evenly.
The longer sum lets gentle transitions and fainter nebulosity emerge more clearly.
Image and observation
Catalogue: NGC 7000
Capture date: 2025-05-23
Total exposure: 22620 s
Imaging and processing: Ulrich Schwarz · Vespera Pro
Read the sky journey
Welcome to a journey through NGC 7000, the North America Nebula. Our view leads into the constellation Cygnus, through a rich field of the Milky Way near the bright star Deneb. About 2,300 light-years away, NGC 7000 and the neighbouring Pelican Nebula form parts of the same vast H II region, W80. In this image, glowing hydrogen, cold dust clouds and young stars together draw the apparent coastlines across the sky.
Nordamerikanebel
NGC 7000, also known as Caldwell 20, is not a continent in space but an immense cloud of ionised hydrogen. Ultraviolet radiation from hot stars strips electrons from hydrogen atoms; when they recombine, they produce the characteristic red glow of hydrogen-alpha light.
Its familiar outline is shaped mainly by foreground clouds of dark gas and dust. They obscure parts of the luminous background, drawing the bays and coastlines in which our eyes recognise North America.
CYGNUS WALL
The Cygnus Wall forms the bright rim of the apparent western coast of Mexico. It is an ionisation front: energetic radiation meets denser material and illuminates a sharply defined emission ridge extending across many light-years.
Dark pillars and small globules stand in silhouette against the ionised gas. Radiation and stellar winds erode material while compressing some regions at the same time—conditions in which further stars may form.
LDN 935
LDN 935 is the dark molecular cloud between the North America and Pelican nebulae. Its especially dense section is called the Gulf of Mexico because of its place in the celestial continent. The light is not absent here: cold dust absorbs and scatters it before it can reach us.
Infrared and spectroscopic studies reveal an active stellar nursery. Young stars, glowing shock fronts and numerous Herbig–Haro objects disclose jets of matter launched by stars still in the process of formation.
IC 5070
IC 5070 is the Pelican Nebula. Physically it belongs with NGC 7000 to the shared H II region W80; only the dark cloud LDN 935 makes the two appear as separate nebulae in visible light.
Ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds sculpt the gas here as well. Infrared and X-ray observations reveal many young stars at different stages of development, from deeply embedded sources to young suns already visible in optical light.
NGC 6997
NGC 6997 is an open star cluster that appears, from our point of view, directly against the glowing nebula. Its stars formed together and travel through the Milky Way as a loose group.
The overlap is deceptive, however. Studies treat NGC 6997 as a distinct and much older cluster seen only along the same line of sight. It does not create the North America Nebula—the image combines two objects that are separated in three-dimensional space.