Rory Glasgow Caldwell Objects, Nebulae, NGC Objects

Iris Nebula

I’ve been wanting to image this one for a long time. The Iris Nebula is in the constellation Cepheus and is a reflection nebula that is illuminated by a bright, central star. Clouds of dark, light-obscuring dust create “voids” in the surrounding starfield.

Iris Nebula (Caldwell 4, NGC 7023). 315 x 60s at 60 gain on the Dwarf 3, processed in Siril.

The Iris was quite a challenge and took several attempts. Had I gotten it “right” the first time I would have gathered more data, but after a while I decided to move on to other targets. It’s definitely worth a reshoot in the future.