Derby and District Astronomical Society



Cygnus

The Swan

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This image of Cygnus was taken by Steven Chambers on the 25th July 2017. The star Deneb is at the lower left of centre with the red glow of the Pelican and North America Nebulae below it. The star Sadir is to the left of centre with the Butterfly Nebula just below it. The open cluster NGC 6940 is visible near the middle-right edge of the frame and the arc of the Veil Nebula can just be picked out in the 5-o'clock position. The image was taken using a modified Canon EOS 550D with a 100mm lens and comprises 23 frames totalling 29 minutes worth of 18 second exposures at f/5.6. 12 darks and 10 flats were also used.  Image © Steven Chambers



Steven Chambers took this image of Cygnus and the Milky Way on the 21st June 2017 - just before the clouds rolled in! The star Deneb is visible just a little to the lower left of centre. The image comprises 17 frames over a total of 55 minutes exposure using a Canon EOS with a 100mm lens at ISO 800. The second image is from the same sequence of frames but processed a little differently to bring out the ghostly red appearance of the North America Nebula.  Image © Steven Chambers



This wide photo of the summer Milky Way was taken on the 12th August 2013 by Chris Newsome. The image is centred on the star Deneb in Cygnus with Vega (in Lyra) at the top and Altair (in Aquila) at the right. The Andromeda galaxy, M31, can be seen in the lower half of the image. No, there are no Perseids! Chris used a Canon 40D with a 10mm lens at f/3.5 and 640 ASA. The image comprises 62 frames of 30 seconds each. The camera was piggybacked on his Meade ETX 105.  Image © Chris Newsome



DDAS member Chris Newsome shot this photo of the Milky Way from Cathedral Gorge, Utah, USA, while on holiday there in August 2012. It shows the Cygnus region. Taken with a Canon 40D and a 10-22mm lens.  Image © Chris Newsome



Simon Allcock captured this image of a satellite passing through Cygnus on the 28th October 2009. It was moving in an approximately north to south-west direction. The image also shows the Summer Triangle comprised of the stars Deneb in Cygnus (top), Altair in Aquila (lower left) and Vega in Lyra (mid right). The small and diminutive constellation of Delphinus is towards the middle left edge of the image (above Altair), while the Keystone asterism of Hercules occupies the lower right corner of the picture. A second version of the image with these constellations outlined in red is also provided below this image.  Image © Simon Allcock



The Milky Way is framed by the open dome of the DDAS Flamsteed Observatory in this image taken by Chris Newsome on the 26th September 2009. The 'W' of Cassiopeia lies at the lower part of the opening while Deneb and the stars of Cygnus fill most of the upper two thirds. The Double Cluster in Perseus is also visible just below Cassiopeia. Chris used a Canon 400D camera with a 10mm super-wide angle lens at 1600ASA. The image is a single 30 second exposure.  Image © Chris Newsome



Adrian Brown produced this spectacular image of Cygnus over several nights in August 2007. Many of the hydrogen nebulosities in the constellation are visible including the North America Nebula, Pelican Nebula, Crescent Nebula and the Veil Nebula. The image is comprised of 9 panels, taken with a Pentax 50mm f/2 SLR lens stopped down to f/4, a 6nm Hydrogen-Alpha filter and an ATK16HR CCD camera. The total exposure time as 12 hours. To align the mosaic panels, Adrian used a program called Registar. Maxim DL was used to stitch the panels into a single image and Photoshop was used to further process the image.  Image © Adrian Brown



For the Perseid meteor shower maximum on the 12th August 2007 Chris Newsome travelled 200 miles to the to the far west of Pembrokeshire and took this 30 second exposure of Cygnus, the Milky Way and a Perseid (right side of frame). The picture was taken using an unmodified Canon EOS300D camera with a 27 mm lens at 800ASA. It was then processed slightly in CS2. Chris comments: "It was fantastic to see the Milky Way in all it's glory. The nearest sodium light was around 10 miles away and shielded by the Preseli Mountains. The Perseids were coming through the atmosphere thick and fast and bright! It got to a point that there were so many stars on view that it was difficult to make out some of the constellations at times!".  Image © Chris Newsome



Chris Newsome took this image of The North America Nebula and surroundings in Cygnus on the 17th November 2005. He used a Canon EOS300D camera with a 55mm lens and light pollution filter. The camera was piggybacked on a Celestron C6-N with a CG-4 mount. The image comprises eight 5 minute exposures at 1600ASA, which were stacked and dark subtracted in K3CCDTools and then processed in Photoshop v7 (GradientXTerminator, curves and RGB levels). The bright star at the centre of the image is Deneb and the North America Nebula (so named because of its shape) lies above it - on its side with 'Central America' at left! Just below NGC 7000 (in the 11 o'clock position from Deneb) lies the fainter Pelican Nebula (IC 5067-70). In the 7 o'clock position from Deneb in the lower-left portion of the image is the star Sadr (Gamma Cygni). This is surrounded by a complex of emission nebulosity designated IC 1318.  Image © Chris Newsome



The following picture shows Cygnus (centre) and Delphinus (at left) and was taken by Chris Newsome on the 25th September 2005. Note the faint silhouette of Chris' telescope against the sky background in the lower part of the image.  Image © Chris Newsome



Chris Newsome took the following picture of Deneb and surroundings (complete with the trail of the Thames Valley Police helicopter!) on the 10th July 2005 from Reading.  Image © Chris Newsome



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