Around Sadr – The Heart of Cygnus in SHO

This image captures the dense and chaotic region of space surrounding Sadr (Gamma Cygni), the bright star near the center of the Cygnus constellation. It's an area absolutely loaded with hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen emissions, creating a rich canvas of filaments, knots, and dark dust lanes.

I shot this from my cabin in Deep Gap, North Carolina, over three nights under clear Bortle 3 skies. The setup was my ZWO 2600MM Duo mono camera paired with the Askar FMA180 Pro, a compact 180mm refractor that delivers a wide, sharp field perfect for sprawling nebulae like this one. Total integration time came to about 6 hours, using narrowband filters in the SHO (Hubble) palette.

This part of the sky is sometimes overlooked in favor of nearby targets like the North America Nebula, but it holds incredible depth and structure. The mix of glowing gas and dusty voids makes it one of my favorite wide-field targets in Cygnus.