This is the third time I have processed images of the Wizard Nebula that I originally took in 2015. Some of the sub exposures were over 1 hour, which is a long time for a telescope and mount to track an object in such a way as to keep a camera steady while recording stars within a pixel or two without anything going wrong or any trailing or blurring. The sub exposures are stacked to produce a final image where dim objects become bright and clear. Ultra narrowband filters are used to emphasize nebulae in a dramatic fashion.

Wikipedia describes the Wizard Nebula as follows:

"NGC 7380 is a young open cluster of stars in the northern circumpolar constellation of Cepheus, discovered by Caroline Herschel in 1787. The surrounding emission nebulosity is known colloquially as the Wizard Nebula, which spans an angle of 25′. German-born astronomer William Herschel included his sister's discovery in his catalog and labelled it H VIII.77. The nebula is known as S 142 in the 1959 Sharpless catalog (Sh2-142). It is extremely difficult to observe visually, usually requiring very dark skies and an O-III filter. The NGC 7380 complex is located at a distance of approximately 8.5 kilolight-years from the Sun, in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way.

The cluster spans ~20 light-years (6 pc) with an elongated shape and an extended tail. Age estimates range from 4 to 11.9 million years. At the center of the cluster lies DH Cephei, a close, double-lined spectroscopic binary system consisting of two massive O-type stars. This pair are the primary ionizing source for the surrounding H II region and are driving out the surrounding gas and dust while triggering star formation in the neighboring region. Of the variable stars that have been identified in the cluster, 14 have been identified as pre-main sequence stars while 17 are main sequence stars that are primarily B-type variables."

This is available as a 11" x 14" Aluminized Photo at the web address below:

The Wizard - Etsy

My Astro La Vista store is at:

https://astrolavista.etsy.com