Astrophotography: Iris Nebula

We just had Valentine's day and so I thought a fitting post would involve flowers.   There is a beautiful "flower" in space called the Iris nebula.   There are a different types of nebula with the most common being an emission nebula or a reflection nebula.   Both types of nebula involve dust and gas in space. An emission nebula is when energy from a nearby star ionize the gas usually resulting in a red color.   The Iris Nebula is a reflection nebula.  A reflection nebula is when there is not enough energy from a nearby star to ionize the gas, but the energy is scattered through the dust.   When the energy is scattered it reflects off the dust and commonly causes a blue color.

A beautiful reflection nebula is the Iris nebula which reflects a beautiful blue color.  It is 1300 light years away and six light years across.

I took this photo with a Celetron Edge 8 HD and comprises about 1 hour of exposure.