There is certainly an artistic eye put to use when composing astrophotos, but sometimes the sky paints the picture for us! This portrait captures the cloudy brushstrokes of Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Sulphur outlining a door to the unknown through the constellation Cygnus. Lying about 1,600 light years away, this 2-panel mosaic covers a field nearly 1 degree in height (North-South), or about twice the size of the full moon. It's a great reminder how enormous some of these treats sit in our skies!

This is the first (and so far the only planned) mosaic I've done with the 12" telescope, and it turned out so well that I may have to consider more once I get the gear set back up. Stitching went seamlessly (literally) using PixInsight's Photometric Mosaic scripts, and this area certainly called for the effort with the entire "celestial door" barely fitting in such a field of view. The delicate wisps of obscuring dust are so unique, it's a shame this area tends to be often overlooked by the camera for the much richer North American Nebula region nearby.