The universe is like a safe to which there is a combination. But the combination is locked up in the safe.

— Peter De Vries

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.