APOD #4, week of 9/17-9/21

APOD of September 20, 2007
This picture, taken in Cygnus (Swan, one of Ptolomy's 48 constellations)/The Northern Cross, shows the bright star (a white supergiant) Deneb (Arabic for "Tail) of the summer triangle in a bright blue color, surrounded by a red nebula. This nebula is actually along the plane of the Milky Way itself, and one of the links is a panorama of the Milky Way. You can see the North American Nebula and Pelican Nebula in the top left, close to each other. The North American actually looks like America, but the Pelican is kind of a stretch (you can see the beak but the body is just kind of a blob. Yes, that's a scientific word for you: blob.) One of the links has the same picture, but with other stars and nebulae labeled. Deneb is actually a part of two asterisms - the Summer Triangle that we're familiar with, and also the Northern Cross (a link shows a picture of the area, when you scroll your mouse over it shows the Northern Cross).