Home > Deep Sky Object, Ephemeris Program, Nebulae, Observing > Ephemeris: 09/03/2026 – Finding the North American Nebula

Ephemeris: 09/03/2026 – Finding the North American Nebula

September 3, 2026 Leave a comment Go to comments

This is Ephemeris for Thursday, September 3rd. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours and 8 minutes, setting at 8:15, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:08. The Moon, 1 day before last quarter, will rise at 11:15 this evening.

Most of what we see in the Milky Way are just masses of stars, but there are bright clouds of gas, or to name them properly: emission nebulae. These bright clouds are areas of star formation. It is the ultraviolet light from young massive stars that light up the clouds they were formed from. A bright one, easily visible in binoculars, is just about overhead at 10 p.m. Called the North American Nebula, a glow, that in photographs is shaped much like our continent, is just east of the star Deneb which is practically overhead in the evening. Deneb is the northernmost star of the Summer Triangle, and brightest star in Cygnus the swan or Northern Cross. There are many other nebulae in the Milky Way, visible in binoculars and small telescopes. Many enjoyable hours can be spent sweeping the Milky Way for nebulae and star clusters.

The astronomical event times given in this blog are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (Lat 44.7° N, Long 85.7° W; EDT, UT – 4 hours) unless stated otherwise. Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum

The North American Nebula finder. Move slider to see the stars and Milky Way as they are seen in the sky and as annotated. Created using Stellarium.
Deneb & North American Nebula
One of my old photographs of Deneb and the North American Nebula digitized from a slide.
The North American Nebula
The North American (center left) and Pelican (right) nebulae is seen here in an astrophotograph by Daniel Dall’Olmo. The red color is due to the element hydrogen. Our eyes can’t perceive red very well with our night vision. However, hydrogen also emits in the green, which along with doubly ionized oxygen also emitting green light, makes it bright enough to be discerned visually. Click or tap on the image to enlarge it.

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