This wonderful region of numerous dark, reflection and emission nebulae is located in the constellation of Cepheus at a declination of +63 degrees.   This region is so rich that, over the past 5 years, I have posted 5 images on Astrobin of different objects within this field of view.  

This FOV includes almost the full frame of the RASA + 6200, so some vignetting is seen in the corners of the image. 

My main goal this time was to properly capture LDN 1218, the dark nebula which spans the center of the image.  3 years ago, Nico Carver posted the first Astrobin image which targeted this nebula.  He dubbed it the Skeleton Hand Nebula, which I loved and then tried to capture with my Tak 85.  But I failed miserably.  With this latest effort, I can finally see the Skeleton Hand reaching across the image!

The numerous other objects in the image, all annotated in yellow on the mouseover and best seen in the full resolution view, are as follows:

- At the right center of the image is Sh2-155, the Cave Nebula.  It is located 2400 light years away and has a radius of 35 light-years.  The bright rim of ionized hydrogen gas that forms the cave outline is being energized by the radiation from the two bright stars towards the top of the cave. The Cave Nebula object is the 9th object in the Caldwell Catalog.  I have imaged this object twice in the past, with my C11 and with my Tak130.

-  The bright bluish reflection nebula near the right edge of the image is vdB 155.  

-  The small reddish nebula to the left of vdB 155 is Herbig-Haro object HH168.  Herbig-Haro objects are high velocity collimated bi-polar jets associated with new star formation.  Just above HH168 is a small dark area, reminiscent of the Keyhole Nebula, which is likely a Bok globule.   Just to the lower left of HH168 is the bright reflection nebula GN 22.55.2.   This reflection nebula has several interesting small dark nebulae silhouetted against it.  My previous C11 image of these 2 obscure objects is shown here.

- In lower left corner of the image, the bright small red emission nebula is Sh2-158, also known as NGC 7538.  My previous narrowband C11 image of this object is shown here.  The nebula is located 9000 light years away. It is about 9 arc-minutes wide, which corresponds to a width of 25 light-years.  The central portion of the nebula, shown in blue in my narrowband image, appears to be a cavity in the surrounding dust cloud which has been cleared out by the small star cluster within.  This nebula has two less-than-inspiring nicknames - the Brain Nebula and the Northern Lagoon Nebula.