Date: August 5, 2008
Loation: Victoria Centre Observatory

The North America Nebula is so huge it ca be naked eye object at dark sites. It dominates this photo, with "Central America" appearing brighter than any previous image I have taken of this object.

Details:
Optics: Hutech modified Canon XTi mounted prime focus on a Borg 101ED f/4 Astrograph, HEQ5 Pro EQ mount
Exposures: 59 images at 1 minute, ISO 800.

Processing:
ImagesPlus 3.5: digital development of Canon Raw to FITS; dark & flat frames applied; manual grading; automatic star alignment; Sigma Clipped Average (2.55) used for stacking; aggressive Digital Development (BP 800, BgWt 1.03, Range 1.10); rotated and saved as a 48 bit TIF.
ACDSee Pro 2: Resize; Shadow/Highlight contrast stretch; convert 48 bit to 24 bit RGB; save to jpg.