photo #4965329

Just as we see shapes in the clouds of our atmosphere, we also see them in the clouds of Outer Space. To the left of this image is the North America Nebula, so named as it resembles that continent in outline. On the right, the less-bright cloud is the Pelican Nebula, with its resemblance to the huge-billed bird at the top, facing left. This detailed image was produced by Ken Haughan (Cloud Appreciation Society Member 44,123) by stacking together 80 individual photos that he took through a 50 mm (2-inch) wide-field telescope from his back garden in Hagenbrunn, Austria.Ken used a special filter that isolates the light produced from different gases in the nebulae. The orange areas show clouds made of hydrogen, while the blue areas show clouds of oxygen. The gases glow because they’re being ionised by the radiation from a nearby star. These two nebulae are situated within the Milky Way, inside the constellation of Cygnus, approximately 1,800 light years from Earth. During high summer in the Northern Hemisphere, these nebulae are visible through binoculars in the night sky as a light haze almost directly overhead.