This emission nebula is approx 2400 lightyears away, ionised by the bright massive star HD 206267 near the centre of the image. The large number of stars in the image is because of close proximity to the Milky Way.
The dark Elephant's Trunk Nebula is at 12 o'clock.
The star towards the bottom left is Mu Cephei, a red supergiant 100,000x brighter than our Sun. At over 1000 times the size of the Sun, if placed at the centre of our solar system, it would engulf planets up to and including Jupiter. At around 950 lightyears distant, it is a foreground star in the image.
This LRGBHa image is the result of 1h 20m of data capture from New Mexico in September 2021, remotely imaged using a SBIG STL-11000M camera through a 4-inch Takahashi FSQ Fluorite refractor.
Date: 13/09/2021
Location: New Mexico, USA
Photographer: Graham Wilcock
