This object is a 2 degree long combination of a blue reflection nebula (vdB 152) and a much longer dark nebulae (Barnard 175 or LDN 1217), located about 1,400 light years away in the constellation of Cepheus at a declination of +71 degrees.
This object has 2 nicknames – the Cepheus Flare and Wolf's Cave. Although the latter nickname suggests that this sky object resembles a wolf's cave, this object is actually named after Max Wolf, the astronomer who announced its discovery in 1908.
vdB 152, also known as Cederblad 201, spans about 4 light years, while Barnard 175 spans about 60 light-years.
The young star illuminating vdB 152 is the 9.3 magnitude blue star BD+69 1231. Surprisingly, this star did not form in this cloud – it is just passing through. Its measured velocity is much different than the cloud's velocity. My favorite part of this image are the interesting arcs of blue light which surround this blue star.
Two other faint emission objects, unrelated to the main attraction, are seen in the image. Both would have shown up in more detail had I imaged them in narrowband instead of broadband:
- The colorful nebula at the left edge of the image is DeHt5. This object is a very faint, very old planetary nebula (PN) located just over 1000 light years away. The bluish star in the center of the purple-blue region is the central star.
- The faint red ribbon in the left corner of the image arcing through vdB 152 is the supernova remnant (SNR) G110.3 + 11.3. It is one of the nearest SNRs to earth, at only 1300 light years away.
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