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ngc 7023

 

Located in western Cepheus, NGC 7023 is a fascinating reflection nebula centered upon a brilliant 7th magnitude star. Blue light from the star is scattered with great efficiency by dust grains about the same size as the particles found in common cigarette smoke. Bordering the brighter nebula are numerous condensations of reddened dust not being illuminated by the star. The more dense areas often block out all visible stars from our line of sight and are known as dark nebulae. Several notable dark nebula reside within this image, including LDN's 1170, 1172, and 1174. This entire area is all part of a vast star-forming region known as the Cepheus T1 Association. Also of note is the small but conspicuous bipolar reflection nebula known as RNO 131 located about 8 arcminutes SE of the central star. Image taken with homemade 8-inch f/5.4 astrograph and SBIG STL-11000XM. LRGB composed of 60 minutes each R,G,B and synthetic L channel. Click on above image for the high resolution version.