DPChallenge: A Digital Photography Contest You are not logged in. (log in or register) 
 
Challenge Entries
Portfolio Images
This image is not part of a public portfolio.
A Continent and a Pelican, 1800 light years away
A Continent and a Pelican, 1800 light years away
jlanoue


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Free Study 2008-07 (Advanced Editing VII)
Camera: Canon EOS-350D Rebel XT
Lens: Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6
Location: Chesterville, Maine
Date: Jul 12, 2008
Aperture: 5.0
ISO: 800
Shutter: b
Galleries: Nature, Astrophotography
Date Uploaded: Jul 21, 2008

 Summer is here! If you've ever been out on a crystal clear summer evening, chances are you've seen the milky way stretching across the sky from the southern horizon all the way past the north star. Directly above on warm summer evenings is the summer star Deneb, it's the brightest star in the constellation Cygnus (the swan)and the asterism the northern cross. Right to the north west of this bright star is a hazy patch that's easily visible to the naked eye, this is the north america and pelican nebulas. These two massive star forming regions, about 1800 light years distant, stretch about six degrees across the sky, which is about 8x the diameter of the full moon. In real miles, this region is about 36 trillion miles wide! This photo is a composite of 5 7 minute exposures with my Tak sky90 refractor in conjunction with an IDAS light pollution filter and my canon 350xt. I combined this layered exposure with 5x12 minutes worth of exposure time on the following night using a hydrogen alpha filter to isolate the nebula from all other stray light. Using this hydrogen alpha exposure as a luminance layer, I combined them in photoshop and tweaked the blending, saturation and levels. I took these shots from my front yard in Chesterville Maine on the nights of July 9th and 10th.

Statistics
Place: 91 out of 524
Avg (all users): 6.1961
Avg (commenters): 7.7143
Avg (participants): 6.2174
Avg (non-participants): 6.1316
Views since voting: 1344
Views during voting: 252
Votes: 153
Comments: 8
Favorites: 1 (view)

Please log in or register to add your comments!

AuthorThread
Canon EOS-5D Mark II
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L USM
 08/08/2008 07:20:37 AM
I wish I had finished voting so I could have given this the ten it deserves. Thanks for the explanation, too. What freak gave it a 1?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
Nikon D3200
Nikon AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G DX VR
 08/07/2008 11:27:19 PM
Awesome shot! Its amazing what details the sky holds, that the naked eye doesn't see.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Pentax K-3 II
Sigma 18-300mm f3.5-6.3 DC Macro OS HSM
 08/07/2008 07:51:20 PM
Very good framing and fine detail at this astrophoto!
I know quite a lot of the difficulties on taking such pictures and you did really a good job here.
The color of the nebulosity in most pictures of this area in Cygnus that I've seen, is mainly red (when imaging is done through LRGB and/or Ha) while yours is somehow different here; but noone can define how much red or pink or even purple a nebula of hudrogen should appear in a photo. So this is not a problem at all. The only thing that could possibly be better is the large blue halo around all of the bright stars, according to my humble opinion.
I hope this image to get a very good score at the challenge! (9)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Nikon D800
Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED
 08/06/2008 08:55:23 AM
what a great God our God is... Genesis 1:1
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 08/06/2008 07:30:09 AM
saw the pelican right a way. Took a while to see the US Continent. Very well composed astro shot. Wish I could see the full size version.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-7D Mark II
Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
 08/04/2008 05:53:28 PM
As I look longer I can see all kinds of things except a pelican.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Nikon D7100
Sigma 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM
 08/03/2008 09:44:22 PM
Beautiful
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-5D Mark III
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L IS USM
 08/02/2008 04:55:18 PM
wow, i love shots like these, so cool
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Theme: Classic / Light / Dark
Home - Challenges - Community - League - Photos - Cameras - Lenses - Learn - Help - Terms of Use - Privacy - Top ^
DPChallenge, and website content and design, Copyright © 2001-2026 Challenging Technologies, LLC.
All digital photo copyrights belong to the photographers and may not be used without permission.
Current Server Time: 10/15/2026 05:43:52 PM EDT.