North American sunset

[sgazer]

or more precisely, the North American nebula at sunset......11pm in this case!

It wasn't really dark enough for DSOs at this time last night, but I just wanted to check how well my 1000d with the 18-55mm kit lens performed on the Celestron SLT ALT/AZ mount. It was only just dusk and I could still see the orange glow of the sun on the northern horizon! The nebula is quite low on the easten horizon.

This image is just 16x30s subs ISO400 at 18mm f3.5, no filters. It's nothing special, particularly due to the major colour gradient! However, right in the centre is Deneb and just below it you can make out the North American nebula and various other patches of nebula across the middle.

What struck me though was the size of the nebula, particularly with the satellite dish in the foreground it really gives a sense of scale (The satellite dish is on top of a shed roof at just above head height and the camera was on some decking just below the level of the dish). If we could see it in the sky with our own eyes, it would be a huge red blob with the apparent size of the satellite dish! Quite amazing I thought.

edit: well that nasty gradient prompted me to buy Gradient Xterminator, and what a difference (3rd image), although I've done some extreme stretching in PS. I'll take some flats today to get rid of those dust bunnies.