Pillars of gas, dust, and hot-burning young stars form the center of NGC 7822. A giant molecular cloud spreads across much of the constellation Cepheus. This nebula is on the northern edge of this glowing star forming region about 3,000 light-years away from us.

Within this nebula, bright edges and pink-coloured shapes are visible in this beautiful area of Cepheus. The atomic emissions are powered by the energetic radiation from the hot stars, whose powerful winds sculpt and erode the denser pillar shapes. Stars could still be forming inside the pillars by gravitational collapse, but as the pillars are eroded away, any forming stars will ultimately be cutoff from their reservoir of star-forming material.

Equipment: Hutech-modified Canon T2i dSLR utilizing an IDAS UIBAR-III filter mounted prime focus on a Borg 101ED f/4 Astrograph mounted on an unguided HEQ5.

Location: RASCals Star Party, Metchosin, BC, Canada

Date/Time: August 14, 2010 1:00am PDT

Exposure: 50 x 1 minute at ISO 800

Conditions: Temperature 16°C, Humidity 55% (no dew). LVM 6.0, Transparency 5/5, Steadiness 5/5, clear skies

Processing:

ImagesPlus 3.82a x64 - Auto-process dSLR - Bayer at capture white balance; digital development from raw, dark frame calibration, normalize, grading, alignment, average min/max exclude combine. Aggressive contrast stretch (BP 800,Bkgd 85); crop & save as 48 bit TIF.

ACDSee Pro 3: further contrast stretch, retouch two dust motes, resize, reduce colour depth to 24 bit, save as jpg.