The North American Nebula (NGC7000), glowing red and to the upper left of center. You are looking down our curving arm of the galaxy. The galactic center is located out-of-image to the lower right. Notice the meteor streaking across the Great Rift at lower right of center. The Great Rift is the darkness beginning in the center of the image and extending out-of-image to the lower right. It is dust blocking the light from stars beyond. The darkness on the far right & left of the image is due to to looking "out of the plane of the galaxy" and is simply absence of stars.

Various Nebulae and Open Clusters can be identified from the chart below. The famous Veil Nebula (NGC6992), a faint red arc in the photo, is at lower center and a little to the left. The Dark Nebula "Barnard 168" (not shown on the chart below) is the small dark streak just to the left of the open cluster M39, which is in the upper left of the image. Chart created in Megastar v4.0.26 (Demo).