Blooming in the Cosmos: Unveiling the Iris Nebula! 🌸✨

C4 / NGC 7023

My latest capture, the beautiful Iris Nebula, is also known as NGC 7023! This one's a true cosmic masterpiece, located in the constellation Cepheus.

What makes the Iris Nebula so captivating is that it's primarily a reflection nebula. Unlike emission nebulae that glow from ionized gas, reflection nebulae get their light by scattering the light from nearby bright stars. Think of it like fog or dust illuminated by car headlights – the starlight reflects off the dust grains, giving the nebula its soft, ethereal glow. The prominent bright star illuminating the Iris is SAO 19158, a hot, young star that's quite a bit more massive and luminous than our Sun.

The intricate patterns and delicate colors you see are due to the complex network of interstellar dust and gas that makes up the nebula. These dust grains are incredibly tiny, similar in size to smoke particles, but when you have immense clouds of them, they effectively scatter the blue light from the star more efficiently than other colors, which often gives reflection nebulae a beautiful blue tint. However, you can also see hints of red from some emission (from hydrogen gas) within the nebula, adding to its complexity!

In terms of scale, the Iris Nebula is quite grand, stretching approximately 6 light-years across. To give you a sense of that, if our solar system were placed at one end, the light would take six years to reach the other side! It's also quite a ways off, sitting at a distance of about 1,300 light-years from Earth. Despite that distance, its beauty shines through, showcasing the incredible artistry of the universe.

I guess I could have done with more hours to better capture the clouds!

Integration time - 135 mn
27 x 300s - 135 mn

Setup:
TS-Optics SD-APO 102mm f/7
ZWO ASI533MC Pro
Sky-watcher EQ6-R Pro
IDAS LP-D2
Askar M54 OAG
ZWO ASIAIR Pro
ZWO EAF
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