This is a photo of the North American Nebula taken with an 8-in f1.5
Celestron Schmidt Camera from the roof of the Wren Physics Building in
Williamsburg, Virginia (for a larger version, click here).
Notice the Pelican Nebula off the East coast
of North America. I've never seen it mentioned anywhere else, but doesn't
the region to the left look like one of those bobbing bird toys?
The technical details: the film was gas-hypersensitized 2415 Technical
Pan and it was shot through a Wratten-29 red filter. The exposure time
was eight minutes, about the limit due to sky-fog. The film chip was developed
in D-19 for 4 minutes. The final print was made on a hard 3.5 contrast
grade glossy paper. That is the basic recipe for all the Schmidt photos.
