This object was a good lesson learned for my C11 Edge HD setup. It is a faint reflection nebula, nicknamed the Ghost Nebula, in the constellation of Cepheus at a declination of +68 degrees. I have presented the object here in my usual north up orientation, and not a more ghost friendly south up orientation.
The nebula is over two light-years across and is located about 1200 light-years away. The cosmic dust clouds surround numerous stars, which illuminate the clouds resulting in a brownish cast. Star formation is likely taking place in these Bok globule dark clouds.
My new setup, at its native F10, is useful for imaging brighter objects such as galaxies. But it just doesn’t gather enough light to illuminate dim nebulae without tremendous integration times. For a good example on how it should be done, see my friend Christoph’s beautiful recent
IOTD, shot with his F4.8 setup. Although I captured some interesting detail in the brightest portions of this nebula, I missed out on bringing out the detail from the fainter regions that a faster setup would have captured.
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