BEAUTY: 
BRAGGING RIGHTS: A beautiful sight
HOW EASY IS IT TO SEE? Best with a rich-field telescope
BEST TIME TO SEE IT: Fall (in Cygnus)
TYPE: Diffuse Nebula DISCOVERED: 1786 by William Herschel
A continent of stars. With apologies to our Alaskan and Hawaiian friends, this nebula bears a striking resemblance to the contiguous part of the North American continent. It is also surprisingly easy to find. Point your binoculars at Deneb, the brightest star in Cygnus, and pan to the left (east) a few degrees. Under dark skies, you should see a fan of nebulosity more than a degree across (twice the diameter of the full moon). You could spend hours exploring the patches of nebula and small star clusters that make up this nebula. An arc of light resembling Mexico is one of its most prominent pieces. From there, you might be able to make out the rest of the Gulf Coast and a faint peninsula representing Florida. Two small open clusters (NGC 6997 and Collinder 428) are embedded in the nebula, the first on the eastern side and the second on the west.
