Cygnus with point and shoot.

[virtualpilot45]

I went out last night with my binoculars, and I hadn't been out at midnight for ages, as I can't really stay up much during weekdays, and the other weekends were cloudy, and I realised just how great my granddad's big 10x50 binoculars were. Though I couldn't see any nebulosity, the number of stars to be found in the galactic plane was incredible, especially in the zone near Cygnus. So I set up my P&S camera on my little Alt-Az tripod and took 14 exposures, 20s each, ISO 100 and f/2.8. I then combined all of them in DSS and got an image which really amazed me. Again, no nebulosity, that will have to wait for when I go to my first dark site, but in the meantime, I am more than satisfied with this. The brightest star in the top right is Vega, the bright one on the left is Deneb. Now I just need to get rid of those pesky gradients!

Cygnus | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[virtualpilot45]

Astrometry.net gave me some additional info

(RA, Dec) center:(300.361883355, 38.0625672249) degrees

(RA, Dec) center (H:M:S, D:M:S):(20:01:26.852, +38:03:45.242)

Orientation:148.86 deg E of N

Pixel scale:174.46 arcsec/pixel

Parity:Reverse ("Left-handed")

Field size :49.62 x 37.22 degrees

Your field contains:

The star Vega (αLyr)

The star Deneb (αCyg)

The star Sadr (γCyg)

The star Gienah (εCyg)

The star Alderamin (αCep)

The star δCyg

The star Albireo (β1Cyg)

The star Sulafat (γLyr)

The star ζCyg

The star Sheliak (βLyr)

IC 1311

IC 1318 / gamma Cyg nebula

NGC 6960 / Filamentary nebula / Lace-work nebula / Veil nebula

IC 5068

IC 5070 / Pelican nebula

NGC 6992 / Network nebula / Veil nebula

NGC 7000 / North America nebula

IC 1396