"Wizard Nebula" (Sharpless 2-142) and NGC 7380

The 'Wizard Nebula' (Sharpless 2-142) and star cluster NGC7380 lie within the borders of the constellation Cepheus. The nebula is dominated by hydrogen emission, with only a slight signal from oxygen and sulfer. Located within the nebula is a young open star cluster designated NGC 7380, estimated to be only 2-4 million years old. Distance estimates of the complex range from 1.43 kpc to 3.6 kpc (~4700 - 11,800 light years). The star cluster is not prominent in the image here, but lies approximately in the cyan-colored region below. The star DH Cephei (HD215835) is the principle stellar source that is responsible for exciting the hydrogen in the nebula.

The image above was taken through narrowband filters--filters that allow only a thin band of light at very specific wavelengths to pass through to the digital camera. Three filters were used in the above image: H-alpha (hydrogen, 656 nm), OIII (doubly ionized oxygen, 500 nm) and SII (singly ionized sulfer, 671/673 nm). The resulting image from each filter is then assigned a color channel to make the final, color image. While the color pallete is somewhat arbitrary, chosen for aesthetic reasons--the colors here are what is commonly called the "modified Hubble pallete" (red = SII; green = Halpha; blue = OIII).