The Cepheus constellation part of the sky shows part of the Milky Way that host several star forming regions. One of the molecular clouds which spreads from 600 to around 1400 light years away from Earth and is named Cepheus Flare. Near one of Flare edges is the beautifully formed nebula vdB-141 also known as Sh2-136. “vdB” comes after Sidney van den Bergh who discovered the “dark” nature of the object in 1966. “Sh2”comes after from the second edition of Stewart Sharpless emission nebulae catalog published in 1959. It also has popular name “Ghost Nebula”.

Being part of star forming region means that many things are happening. It is a reflection nebula that shines with the light of several stars embedded in it, most obvious is the one in the central blob. In right dark part there is cone shaped area – this is a Bok globule cataloged as CB230. The Bok globules are dark clouds in process of condensing and forming protostars. CB230 is considered to be producing a binary star system. The same place is also cataloged as Herbig Haro object HH 157. The Herbig Haro objects are nebulae around newborn stars that are formed in the nearby clouds by the ionized gas jets emitted by the young stars. It is an interesting area described in the results of different sky surveys. 

vdB-141, was in my ToDo list for more than 6 years, but somehow didn’t manage to get clear New Moon nights in the right period when it is high in the sky. However this season was a lucky one and managed to get 7 from good to great nights, near two new moons. This project is also the first proper light of my ASI2600MM. It is a bit sad that had to crop almost half of the frame because the 1.25” filters I have are too small for the sensor, but am very happy with the camera sensitivity which was the main goal of the upgrade from QHY22

Definitely like the result and hope that you will like it too

https://www.astrophotography.app/