The North America Nebula is large, covering an area of more than four times the size of the full moon, but its surface brightness is low so normally it cannot be seen with the unaided eye. Binoculars and telescopes with large fields of view (approximately 3°) will show it as a foggy patch of light under sufficiently dark skies. 

The North America Nebula and the nearby Pelican Nebula, (IC 5070) are in fact parts of the same interstellar cloud of ionized hydrogen (H II region). Between the Earth and the nebula complex lies a band of interstellar dust that absorbs the light of stars and nebulae behind it and thereby is responsible for the shape as we see it. The distance of the nebula complex is not precisely known, nor is the star responsible for ionizing the hydrogen so that it emits light. If the star inducing the ionization is Deneb, as some sources say, the nebula complex would be about 1800 light years distance, and its absolute size (6° apparent diameter on the sky) would be 100 light years.

Discovered by William Herschel on October 24, 1786 from Slough England.

The above image represents eight hours of exposure at F/3.6.  It was taken over three nights in light polluted skies with a full moon.  Astrodon narrow band filters were used to capture the Sulfur, Hydrogen, and Oxygen emission lines.  Consistent with the Hubble Palette, these were mapped to RGB, respectively .  The imaging telescope was a Takahashi FSQ106ED guided by a Takahashi FS60CB and SBIG SG-4 autoguider.  Imaging camera was a QSI 583ws.  The mounting used was an Astro-Physics Mach 1 GTO.

The image below was mapped using the CFHT (Canada, France, Hawaii Telescope) Palette.