This object, located 5000 light years away in the Cygnus constellation at a declination of +38 degrees, is a beautiful nebula consisting of an expanding shell of gas about 25 light-years across. The shell is being blown out by winds from its central, bright, massive star. The central star is classified as a Wolf-Rayet star, meaning that it suffers a high rate of mass loss, and so the resulting nebula is called a Wolf-Rayet nebula.  Such nebulae are often spectacular.  My Astrobin collection of Wolf-Rayet nebulae is shown on this poster, including objects such as NGC 2359 (Thor's Helmet) and Sh2-308 (Dolphin's Head or Gourd).

The progenitor star is designated WR136 and is the bright star at the center of the nebula. The star is shedding its outer envelope in a strong stellar wind, ejecting the equivalent of the Sun's mass every 10,000 years. The nebula's complex structures are the result of this strong wind interacting with material ejected in earlier phases.

This image is bi-color, using light from hydrogen and oxygen atoms in the wind-blown nebula and then adding RGB stars. The oxygen atoms produce the blue-green hue that is predominantly on the outside of the nebula, while the hydrogen atoms produce the reddish hue that is predominantly on the inside.  This structure is reversed from the typical PN structure, which has HII on the outside and OIII on the inside.

My favorite parts of this object are the billowing arcs of oxygen gas fronts seen at both the top and bottom of the nebula. At the top they look like a wispy, spiffy cap, while at the bottom they look like puffy mammatus clouds.

The surrounding seas of HII nebulosity contains another interesting object.  The Soap Bubble PN (also known as PN G75.5+1.7) is seen at lower left. This planetary nebula, discovered just 15 years ago, is located 4000 light years away and is 5 light-years in diameter. I have attached a crop of it in Revision C: