The Wizard Nebula (NGC 7380 and Sh2-142)

Last night (the 21st July) was one of those really nice still summer evenings when, with a bit of clear weather, you get a glorious view of the Milky Way. This is because, when it finally gets dark enough about 11.30 BST, Cygnus, through which the Milky Way travels, is quite high up in the south. I was quite pleased to see a number of nebulous patches low over our hedge which were possibly exciting objects like the Lagoon Nebula or the Eagle Nebula. I will have to get round to cutting some of the elder to get a better view! In the end I didn't have much time before it clouded over but I had a go at something at a much higher altitude and this was what has been called the Wizard Nebula in Cepheus. The moon was at first quarter but was low in the south west. This is what I obtained after 152x15s (38 minutes) of observation:-

The first frame was taken at 23:45 BST and the last at 00:31 on the 22nd. The duo-band filter was employed and the gain was set to 60. Auto parameters were used in Stellar Studio. I have increased the saturation and brightness of the image in Photoshop and binned it x2 (please click on the image to see a full-size view). Here is a close-up of the nebula and star cluster in the centre of the frame:-

NGC 7380 actually refers to the young open star cluster that sits above the nebula in this image. The stars in this loose cluster formed between 4 and 11 million years ago and have emerged from the dust and gas that is surrounding them. The nebulosity is referred to as Sh2-142 in Sharpless's catalogue. The red colour comes from ionized hydrogen and most of the ionizing radiation comes from DH Cephei - a close pair of massive O-type stars. The cluster is about 8,500 light-years from us in the Perseus arm of the Milky Way. I suppose it gets its name of the wizard nebula because there is what looks like a wizard's pointed hat in the lower centre of the image and I guess his arms (with long sleeves) are stretched out either side whilst he creates an explosion of colour in the middle! Who knows!

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026 

The Pelican and North American Nebulae

The hot dry weather has been continuing for quite a few weeks now and last night was clear again but with the odd bit of patchy thin cloud. As Cygnus is relatively well placed by late in the evening I had a go at the area of nebulosity that is near the rear of the swan and not far from the brightest star in the constellation, Deneb.The Pelican and North American nebulae lie close together on the sky and form part of a large area of ionized gas. Here is what I obtained after 260x15s (1 hour 5 minutes) of observation:-

The first frame was taken at 23:58 BST and the last at 01:27 on the 10th. The duo-band filter was employed and the gain was set to 60. Auto parameters were used in Stellar Studio. I have increased the saturation of the image in Photoshop and binned it x2 (please click on the image to see a full-size view). 

The North American Nebula (NGC 7000 or Caldwell 20) is in the lower left of the frame. The dark 'bite' taken out of it is supposed to represent the Gulf of Mexico. In the upper centre right of the picture is the Pelican Nebula (IC 5070). This can be seen a bit better in the following rotated and cropped version below:-

As Ruben Kier says in his '100 Best Astrophotography Targets' the long beak looks more like the head of a prehistoric Pterodactyl than the head of a bird but one can get the idea. The nebula is about 1,500 light years from us.

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026

The Dumbbell Nebula M27

For the first time since May I have been able to go out and observe with my Dwarf 3. The night before last (the 8th July) the sky was pretty clear after a hot day and the moon was one day past last quarter. The summer triangle is now obviously prominent in the south east and one object I haven't photographed for a while that appears in the midst of this triangle of bright stars is the Dumbbell Nebula M27 in the constellation of Vulpecula. We are still in a period when astronomical twilight lasts all night but it seemed to me that the sky was dark enough to make observing worthwhile (I could, for example, see parts of the Milky Way).

Here is the result of 198x15s (49.5 minutes) of observation:-

The first frame was taken at 23:49 BST and the last at 00:57 on the 9th. The astro filter was employed and the gain was set to 60. Auto parameters were used in Stellar Studio. I have increased the saturation of the image in Photoshop and binned it x2 (please click on the image to see a full-size view). Here is a close up of the object using the unbinned data:-

The beautiful colours of this object have been picked up well in this image. Notice also the density of stars in the background. This is because the object is close to the Milky Way. This object is a fine example of a planetary nebula and is the result of an old star (a red giant) shedding its outer layers of dust and gas. This is what we can see in the form of a shell of material which surrounds the remnant of the original star (now a white dwarf). The red colours some from hot ionized hydrogen (the H-alpha Balmer line) and the blue colours from doubly ionized oxygen. The nebula is about 1360 light-years away and is approximately 2 light-years in diameter. Its age is estimated to be 9,800 years.

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026