Iris Nebula

This is the Iris nebula, also known as NGC 7023 or Caldwell 4. This is a bright young star surrounded by a dust cloud that makes this beautiful image.

You can’t see many stars around this before because there is a dark cloud of dust obscuring them all! If I was imaging from a darker site we might be able to see it, but alas, not from my backyard.

The Iris Nebula isn’t too far away, just 1,300 lightyears. If we were to head straight here as fast as Voyager 2 is going (38,000 mph) we’d be there in 23 million years!