The Iris Nebula in Cepheus is a bright reflection nebula, illuminated by a massive young star at its center. The nebula is embedded in a huge cloud of dusty material produced by earlier generations of stars. This image was acquired with a 12.5" PlaneWave CDK telescope and a Quantum-Scientific QSI-640ws camera working at f/5.2. Data were collected from a dark-sky location near Anza, CA, with a total integration time of 8.3 hours using LRGB filters (240:100:80:80 mins LRGB).
-- Bruce Waddington