Stellar Shot of the Week: August 27, 2021
"The Cygnus Wall" (by Jim Esch)

Congratulations to this week's Stellar Shot selection, which goes to Jim Esch and his magnificent rendition of the Cygnus Wall. It is an emission ridge composed of a concentrated star forming region within NGC 7000, otherwise known as the North American Nebula. This was the second image Jim took with his brand new SVX102T, and to say he knocked it out of the park would be an understatement. The starts are tack-sharp, the gaseous details are jaw-dropping, and he processed it with a perfect narrowband color pallet just to round everything out nicely. The field of view achieves with this scope and an APS-C camera is perfect as well, with basically any mid-size target fitting perfectly in the frame. The details of the wall really pop with Jim's framing of the photo as well, although I'm sure the 18+ hours of data helped too.

The rest of Jim's work can be seen on his Astrobin page, under the username of "Astrojim11". And please make sure to submit your own images to us by email too (mail@stellarvue.com) or by tagging them on social media with #stellarvue and #stellarshot.

The technical details of this shot are as follows: 

• Astrobin Link: https://astrob.in/qe5m5m/0/
• Integration Time: 18.2 hours
• Imagine Telescope: Stellarvue SVX102T
• Camera: ZWO ASI2600MM-P
• Focuser: Optec FTX30
• Guide Scope: AstroTech 72EDII
• Guide Camera: ZWO ASI290MM
• Filters: Astrodon 36mm with exposures 138 Ha, 116 OIII, 109 SII (at 3 minutes each)
• Software: SGP, PHD2, PixInsight