A colorful nebula in Cygnus.
The entire Cygnus (the Swan) region seems to glow red in a large telescope. The constellation forms a particularly bright section of the band of the Milky Way (as seen from Earth). In Cygnus are the North America and neighboring Pelican Nebulae, a large red nebulous region around the star Sadr, the crescent nebula, the tulip nebula, etc. Even the Veil Nebula is in Cygnus. It can be overwhelming.
Below is a widefield image (40 deg by 30 deg) of this region from June 2021 (Lac Teeples).
The image at top is an attempt to look at a particularly interesting smaller spot in Cygnus, named NGC2914. The frame is roughly 1.5 degrees by 1 degree. The red light is ionized hydrogen emission and the blue is a reflection nebula, light from extremely bright blue stars reflecting off gasses in the region. I had previously understood the blue light to be emission at a different wavelength, at a much higher energy, but it appears that things are less exotic/energetic than that.
To a certain extent the large scale image (40 degrees across) is similar to the small scale image at top (1.5 degrees across). The smaller image approaches the limit of spatial resolution we can obtain from telescopes on the ground, caused by the "seeing". We observe dark dust lanes blocking objects that lie behind, red glow of ionized H-II regions, fine filaments of glowing gas, reflection nebulae from hot bright and young stars and the stars themselves of various types. Do we see the universe in a grain of sand?
Auguries of Innocence, by William Blake
To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour A Robin Red breast in a Cage Puts all Heaven in a Rage
The image at top was observed at Lac Teeples on October 29, 2021. Only 21 minutes of data were obtained before the target was lost. RASA-11/ZWO ASI6200.
The widefield image was captured in June 2021 with a Canon 24mm pancake lens and a ZWO ASI294MC Pro Camera.
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