The emission nebula NGC 7380, aka the Wizard Nebula (at left) with its associated star cluster also known as NGC 7380. Delta Cephei, a famous double and variable star, is at right, barely resolved here. Delta Cep is the prototype Cepheid variable star, a prime tool for measuring cosmic distances. This is a stack of 10 x 6 minute exposures with the filter-modified Canon 5D MkII at ISO 800 through the TMB 92mm apo refractor at f/4.4 with the Borg. 0.85x field flattener/reducer. Taken from New Mexico, Nov 18, 2014.
A collection of faint nebulas in southern Cepheus, including the Wizard Nebula. This visually faint emission nebula NGC 7380, aka the Wizard Nebula, is at left, while at right is Sharpless 2-135. In between is the famous variable and double star Delta Cephei. The orange star at far right is Zeta Cephei. To be precise, the star cluster embedded in the Wizard is actually NGC 7380, as discovered by Caroline Herschel. Photos reveal the nebula surrounding the cluster. This is a stack of 8 x 8-minute exposures through the Borg 77mm f/4 astrograph and with the Canon EOS Ra red-sensitive mirrorless camera, at ISO 800. Stacked, aligned and processed in Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop 2020. No nebula or light pollution reduction filter was employed in taking the images. I shot this from home November 25, 2019 on a very fine if frosty autumn night. The last few exposures were shot through incoming high haze.
This is a complex of faint nebulas and star clusters in Cepheus: While this exposure shows the field as one large nebula, the arc-shaped region at top is catalogued as NGC 7822. The region below with dark lanes through it is Cederblad 214. The loose open cluster at right is NGC 7762, with the small yellowish cluster (dimmed by interstellar dust) is King 11. A small, sparse cluster at the centre of Ced214 is Berkeley 59. The field of view is about 8° by 5.5° with the 250mm focal length RedCat astrograph. This is a stack of 8 x 8-minute exposures through the William Optics RedCat 51mm f/4.9 astrographic refractor with the red-sensitive Canon EOS Ra camera at ISO 800, and blended with a stack of 8 x 15-minute exposures through the Optolong L-Enhance narrowband filter, with the EOS Ra at ISO 3200, to make up for the nearly 3 stops loss of light from the filter. But it really pops out all the faint nebulosity. All images stacked, aligned and blended with Photoshop. Guiding was with the Lacerta MGEN 3 stand-alone autoguider, which also controlled the camera shutter and applied dithering of 10 pixels between each frame to reduce thermal noise without having to apply LENR in camera or dark frames. This was on the Astro-Physics Mach1 mount.
