The Iris Nebula (NGC 7023, Caldwell 4) is a bright reflection nebula in the constellation of Cepheus, some 1,300 light years away from us. The central (blue) part, which is 6 light years wide, is dust illuminated by a very hot young star in the middle ten times the size of our sun believed to be only some 5,500 years old (V380 Cep; SAO 19158).
The nebula itself and the larger region contains large quantities of interstellar dust. NGC 7023 was first observed by William Herschel in 1794. Although very bright (at magnitude +6.8), the diffuse nature of the nebula makes it difficult to observe it with low-power telescopes.
Data and processing: Goran Petrov
License: Creative Commons BY NC (free for non-commercial use, with attribution).
Click on the image to view full size.
Location: Radibush, Rankovce, Macedonia
Dates: 2019-08-05 to 2019-08-07
Total integration time: 10 hours
Camera 1: ATIK One 9.0, cooled to -20C
Telescope 1: Takahashi FSQ 106 ED refractor
Filters:
L: 30 frames x 10 min
RGB: total of 46 frames x 6 min
For HDR combination, 1 minute LRGB frames were used (total of 40 frames).
Processed in PixInsight.