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. [Source: Wikipedia].

CAPTURE Information:

The image was captured with the iOptron CEM120 mount , the venerable Meade 12"LX200 SCT, and my Atik 383L+ mono CCD at F7.16 (2182mm FL).

Image subs were taken through Astronomik's narrowband filters Ha, SII and OIII.

IMAGE information -- 2020

This is a combination of two (2) panels of each Ha, OIII and SII.

Ha : 70 subs (11.67 hr) on Oct 20th and 21st, and Nov 1st.

OIII : 38 subs (6.33 hr) on Oct 21st, 24th, 28th and 29th.

SII : 40 subs (6.67 hr) on Oct 21st, 29th and 30th.

All exposures were at 10 minutes (600s) each, 1x1 bin and -10C.

Each two panels of Ha, SII and OIII were individually integrated, then merged, and lastly combined. The three assemblies then created the Hubble Palette, using PixelMath and the following “SHO” formula:

Red = SII

Grn = Ha

Blu = OIII

Luminance was created using only subs from the Ha filter.

Processing was done with PixInsight, following (for the most part) kayronjm's tutorial of Feb. 24th from several years back. Credit also goes to Rick Stevenson’s Color Mask Script and Christopher Gomez’s tutorial.

COMMENTS:

I had previously done a two panel mosaic of NGC281. Mosaics take a lot of time and I had little interest in doing more. However, the Wizard Nebula pretty much required a mosaic approach.

This came out fairly well. I got the colors I wanted. I do believe the image however is a bit starry.