Iris Nebula (Caldwell 4, NGC 7023, vdB 139)

The Iris Nebula is a diffuse reflection nebula located about 1,300 light years (ly) away from Earth in the constellation Cepheus takes its name from the flower plant, the Iris.  C4 is an active star-forming region and the central (blue) portion spans about 6 ly.

C4’s central star is a Herbig Be dwarf, HD200775, part of a triple binary system.  Stellar winds as well as ultraviolet radiation are believed to have formed the hourglass-shaped cavity in the Iris.  The elongated blue reflection clouds in the central portion of the nebula are believed to have formed along our Galaxy’s magnetic field lines.

As seen in the image, the central part of the nebula is surrounded by dense dust clouds which are thought to have formed from the incineration of carbon compounds.

I've imaged this nebula before but it seems every time I get a different scope, I come back to this beautiful reflection nebula! 

This is actually first light with my repaired Stellarvue SVX90T.  As a plug for Stellarvue, I just can't say enough good things about their customer-centric approach and their expertise in producing first-class scopes.  The amount of detail this scope was able to extract from this nebula with only 2 hours of integration using just a luminance filter on a OSC camera is a testament to the quality of their products.  I am suitably impressed...  😆  

Capture Date: 7/7/2024

Equipment

Stellarvue SVX90T Apochromatic Refractor @native 540mm fL
Guidescope/Cam: SV106 with ASI120mm mini
ASIAir Plus, ASI2600MC, ZWO AM5 mount, ZWO 5-position filter wheel

Luminance only, total integration time 2:00.

Processed with PixInsight and Adobe Photoshop.