Lying in the western part of Cepheus, this beautiful object is a fairly unusual pure reflection nebula, caused by light from the central magnitude 7 star, SAO 19158, being reflected off the abundance of dust particles left over from when the star was formed. Within the Iris, dusty nebular material surrounds a massive, hot, young star in its formative years. Central filaments of cosmic dust glow with a reddish photo-luminesence as some dust grains effectively convert the star's invisible ultraviolet radiation to visible red light. Yet the dominant color of the nebula is blue, characteristic of dust grains reflecting starlight (APOD).

Imaging Data

Date: 8-26-2010

Location : Sudbury, Massachusetts

Optics : televue 85 Apochromatic Refractor F5.6

Filter(s) : None

Mount : Great Polaris Mount

Autoguiding : None

Camera : Canon EOS 1000D Astro-modified

Exposure info : 9 x 120 second Exposures @ISO 1600

Total Exposure : 18 minutes