The North American Nebula (NGC 7000) is the name of a diffuse gas nebula in the constellation Cygnus. The nebula got its name because of its shape, which is reminiscent of a map of the North American continent. In the night sky the nebula is very large with 120 times 100 arc minutes (the full moon has a diameter of about 30'). It is relatively easy to find, it is located near of the bright star Deneb in the constellation of Cygnus.

The nebula is between 2,000 and 3,000 light-years away (his exact distance is difficult to determine due to its extent) and consists mainly of hydrogen, which occurs partly in ionized form (HII) and emits visible light in the form of deep red radiation. On long exposed photographs, the nebula therefore appears intensely reddish. The visual observation of the nebula is quite difficult, however, despite its overall brightness of mag. 6 may be quite difficult. You need a completely dark, moonless sky that is not disturbed by any artificial light sources.

The North American nebula was discovered in 1891 by Max Wolf at his private observatory in Heidelberg. The discovery was one of the first with the help of astrophotography.

The area of the Great Wall in NGC 7000 is an exciting, almost dramatic region. Various hot O and B type stars provide ionization of the nebulous areas. Unfortunately, the stars responsible for ionization cannot be located exactly. I have therefore tried to use a filter for the near infrared (NIR) to penetrate the dense nebulae in order to make the stars behind  visible. You can see the result in the bluish image of NGC 7000.