LDN978,981-2,984-5,987-8,991,1000, Sh2-120-1, LBN409,411-2,408/GN21.01.3,GN21.00.7/[C86] L988a,V1331 Cygnus

Negev Desert, Israel

This image is dedicated to my loyal friend and partner, my son Ben, whose persistence and dedication kept me going to the next night,
when the system, the sky and the stars all aligned together again...

Total Exposure Time: 6:00 hours L(bin1); RGB(bin2),
LRGB 140:80:60:80 // 36 frames of 10 minutes each
RA 21h 03m 10s, Dec +50° 07' 03"
Pos Angle +270° 17', FL 600.2 mm, 1.86"/Pixel
This image is 1570x1170 pixels

Officina Stellare Riccardi-Honders Veloce RH 200 OTA
Officina Stellare - http://www.officinastellare.com/products_scheda.php?idProd=15
On my site - http://www.pbase.com/boren/officina_stellare_riccardihonders_veloce_rh_200
Deeper technical informaiton on the Riccardi-Honders design - http://www.telescope-optics.net/honders_camera.htm
SBIG ST8300M, LRGB Astrodon Gen II filters
NEQ6 mount, guided w/PHD

An annotated version of the image is here: http://www.pbase.com/boren/image/151532358/original

This region in Cygnus is overlooked for the more famous targets of the region.
It includes a variety of dark and bright nebula, embedded in a beautifully colorful field of stars.

LBN 408 (GN 21.01.3) just left to the bright star on the middle-right part of the image,
looks like a small Iris Nebula (NGC7023) to me
(thanks for Tom Davis' pointing it out in the text accompanying his lovely image of the region -
http://tvdavisastropics.com/astroimages-1_00008c.htm).
Just to its left lies [C86] L988a, a looped nebula in LDN988 which could serve as a great
target for a long focal-length telescope.

As pointed out in Bernhard Hubl's beautiful image of the region http://astrophoton.com/LDN0988.htm),
located at the middle of the bottom-third of the image is V1331 Cyg, a T Tauri star
located in LDN 984. V1331 Cyg is known as a FU Orionis pre-outburst candidate.
This star is embedded in a circumstellar bright nebulosity and is also surrounded by
helix-shaped nebula originated from the star.