Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cepheus (Cep)  ·  Contains:  HD215588  ·  HD215605  ·  HD215806  ·  HD215835  ·  HD215907  ·  HD240068  ·  LBN 506  ·  LBN 511  ·  NGC 7380  ·  PK107-00.1  ·  Sh2-142  ·  Sh2-143
Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
The Wizard Nebula, Richard Francis
Powered byPixInsight

The Wizard Nebula

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
The Wizard Nebula, Richard Francis
Powered byPixInsight

The Wizard Nebula

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

NGC 7380 is an open cluster of stars, and, as is often the case, it is associated with a star-forming emission nebula. The nebula, catalogued as Lynds Bright Nebula (LBN) 511, is more often known as the Wizard Nebula.

Why is it called that? It has the form of a wizard in his classic pointed hat, reclining with both arms outstretched, as we can see in the orange/yellow parts of the image. He's facing to the right.

This nebula, in the constellation Cepheus, is in the main, dense band of the Milky Way, and that is the reason there are so many background stars; over 7000 in this image.
The major star energising the nebula with X-Ray radiation, and sculpting its shape via its strong stelllar winds, is the binary star DH Cephei (HD 215835) which is clearly visible top right of the wizard's left hand. Despite being a double star it appears as one, because they are very close, with an orbital period of 2.11 days. The two stars are almost identical, both being O-type, massive stars. And they are very young, with an estimated age of less than 2 million years.

The whole structure is about 9000 light years from Earth, based on parallax measurements.

Comments