Cygnus Wall

The Cygnus wall is part of the large star-forming region NGC 7000, the North America Nebula in the constellation Cygnus the swan. The wider-field photograph was taken with a 135mm focal length camera lens. The Cygnus Wall image here was captured with a 1482 mm focal length telescope--a zoom-in of more than a factor of 10 that reveals additional detail. It is also framed differently, and uses narrow-band filters sensitive to emmisions from hydrogen, oxygen and sulfer (H-alpha, OIII, and SII) to form a Hubble pallet image. The Cygnus Wall is section of the North America Nebula that corresponds roughly to southern Mexico. Hot young stars emit radiation that causes the interstellar gas to glow, and stellar winds push and striate the medium. Intervening cooler dark molecular clouds add to the complexity of the scene.