Sh2-154 is 1.4 degrees south of the Cave Nebula (Sh2-155), the bottom part of which can be seen at the top of this image.
This HII emission nebula, also known as LBN 521 and LBN 108.96+01.70, is located 4800 light years away in the constellation of Cepheus at a declination of +61 degrees. It spans about 1 degree in our apparent view, which corresponds to a width of 75 light years.
Dr. Stewart Sharpless created the Sharpless catalog of HII regions (emission nebulae) in 1959. The list is intended to be comprehensive north of declination −27°. The catalog prefix is Sh2 because this list of 313 objects is his second catalog version. My Astrobin Sharpless Collection is
here.
A number of other obscure but beautiful DSOs are also present in this image, some of which are identified in the annotated mouseover. Moving from top to bottom in the image, here are the highlights:
- vdB 155 is at the top center:
vdB 155 - Just left of vdB 155 are a number of HH and YSO objects, highlighted by a keyhole-like YSO:
- Just to the lower left of the above object is the reflection nebula GN 22.55.2:
- To the right of Sh2-154 is the planetary nebula NGC 7354. This PN is located 4200 light years away and spans only 22 arc-seconds in our apparent view, which corresponds to a diameter of 0.5 light years. My longer focal length image of this object is here:
NGC 7354 - Just below and left of center is the beautiful star cluster NGC 7419. This small magnitude 13 open cluster, also known as Collinder 453, is located further away, at 10,000 light years. The cluster spans 4 arc-minutes in our apparent view. This corresponds to a diameter of 12 light years. This cluster has one of the highest numbers of red supergiants (5) of any open cluster. My longer focal length image of this object is here:
NGC 7419- To the right of the above cluster, this small unidentified emission and reflection nebula looks like it contains several Herbig-Haro objects, but none are identified in SIMBAD for this location:
- Finally, towards the lower left corner of the image is the reflection nebula GN 23.01.7:
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