When summer ends, this beautiful nebula, approximately 1.300 light years away, appears over the roofs of the houses in my area and enchants the night sky.
When I photographed the Iris Nebula for the first time, I think it was in autumn 2021 at the beginning of my hobby, I was immediately fascinated by this object.
In the last weeks of August 2024 I was lucky with the weather and had many clear nights,
so I was able to photograph the nebula again with my telescope.
The Iris Nebula is a blue reflection nebula with an open cluster in the constellation Cepheus, illuminated by a central hot star called HD 200775 with a brightness of about 7.1 mag.
The name of the nebula comes from the fact that it is reminiscent of a blue-flowering iris.
The object was discovered on October 18, 1794 by the German-British astronomer Sir William Herschel.
There are small reddish nebulae at the core of NGC 7023. As is well known, red nebulae actually represent emissions, but they have their own origin in the iris nebula.
These are believed to be hydrocarbon molecules excited by the powerful radiation from the embedded star.
The fluorescent molecules produce strong ultraviolet radiation, which in turn is reflected by the dust particles present and converted into light that we can see, namely red light.
The interaction between reflected energy and the reaction of certain dust and gas molecules creates its own emission. These carbon molecules that are responsible for this conversion are also called PAHs (Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons).
Detail of the core:
I think it's one of the best shots of a DeepSky object I've taken so far. I hope you like it too.
Clear Sky's Michael
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