The forces of rotation caused red hot masses of stones to be torn away from the Earth and to be thrown into the ether, and this is the origin of the stars.

— Anaxagoras 428 BC

NGC7538

NGC7538

Reflection and emission nebula in Cepheus. Not far from the Bubble Nebula. It is about 10,000 light  years away from Earth. It also harbors the one of the largest protostars known, about 300 times the mass of our sun. The protostar is embedded in a dense gas cloud of 1,000 solar masses.

This image is a result of exposures of 1 hour in H-alpha, 1/2 hour each in RGB. It was taken last night through a 5" refractor at f5 and a starlight express SXVH-9.