North America Nebula

Who'd have thought that there was a vast cloud of glowing gas in space that's the same shape as North America!
It's towards the top of the image, close to the bright star Deneb in the constellation of Cygnus. The Milky Way runs through this area and is rich with various nebulae, star clusters and the light of countless unresolved stars. The dark patches are formed where gas and dust blocks the light from more distant stars.
This was 30 minutes of exposure consisting of stacked 30 second shots taken with a DSLR and a 50mm lens on a star tracking mount.
The location was the North York Moors. The sky there is nothing like my light-polluted view from Manchester. So many stars that I found myself a bit disorientated at first, I'll definitely be going back!