The season is slowly coming to and end here at 63 degrees north due to the fact that the sun will be too bright even in the middle of the night. I’m collecting data on several projects, and I’ve been wanting to do some broadband imaging. The Iris Nebula is a very good target since it’s located due north and visible most of the night, even though it’s a bit low on the horizon.
The Iris Nebula, NGC 7023 or Caldwell 4 is a reflection nebula in the constellation Cepheus. It is named after the plant genus Iris, which consists of more than 300 species. While many nebulae visible in the night sky are emission nebulae (clouds of dust and gas hot enough to emit their own radiation), the Iris Nebula is a reflection nebula (the color comes from the scattered light of nearby stars).
Data for this image: 18x120s + 30x300s L, 20x120s + 11x300s R, 18x200s + 10x300s G, 24x120s + 10x300s B. Total number of exposures 141 with a total integration time of 7.7 hours.
Processing: PixInsight with LRGB palette with LRGB stars.