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The Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888) is probably the stand-out object in my image. It’s a vast bubble of gas about 25 light years across, created by the powerful stellar winds of the massive Wolf Rayet star WR 136. The star previously shed material during an earlier stage of its life, and its much faster present day wind is now crashing into that older gas, sculpting the nebula’s intricate shell and filaments. The turquoise colour in my image comes from glowing oxygen.

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IC 1311 is a faint open star cluster. It’s a bit of an oddity because normally star clusters drift apart, but its members are quite old (probably 1 to 2 billion years old). For some reason, they’ve stuck together.

When I was studying this particular close-up, I noticed a tiny, faint blue-green blob between IC 1311 and the top of the frame. I did a bit of digging and realised it’s Patchick 6, a.k.a. DSH J2009.6+4114, which is probably a planetary nebula.

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Sadr is the brightest star in my image. It’s much larger and more luminous than our own Sun. It’s around 1800 light-years from us, so a lot closer than the nebulosity (which is around 5000 light-years distant). So, Sadr isn’t actually embedded within the nebulosity, but just looks like it because of our line of sight.

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Sh2-104 is a bubble of ionised hydrogen carved out by a hot, young, high-mass star. The nebula itself is surrounded by a ring of gas and dust with some dense clumps that may go on to form new stars.

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The Butterfly Nebula forms part of the huge IC 1318 complex surrounding Sadr. Its two glowing lobes are rich in ionised hydrogen, while the striking dark band between them is a dense cloud of interstellar dust known as LDN 889. Rather than being an empty gap, this dust is blocking the light from the bright nebula behind it, creating the butterfly shaped appearance.

I’ve imaged the Butterfly Nebula before using my Askar 130PHQ telescope:

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The Tulip Nebula (Sh2-101) is a gas cloud that’s being excited by the ultraviolet radiation from nearby stars. It’s a target I’d like to return to with my Askar 130PHQ.

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The Soap Bubble Nebula (PN G75.5+1.7) was only discovered in 2008. It’s an extremely faint and remarkably spherical planetary nebula. It’s thought to be the expanding outer shell of a dying Sun like star, roughly 5 light-years across and around 4000 light years away.

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WR 134 is a Wolf–Rayet star in the constellation Cygnus, surrounded by a faint bubble of ionised gas sculpted by powerful stellar winds. The star, about 6000 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus, is the exposed core of a massive sun shining 400,000 times brighter than our own.

I’ve imaged WR 134 before using my Askar 130PHQ:

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M29 is a young open cluster. It’s compact but bright, so amateurs can see it visually even through a small telescope. M29 is sometimes nicknamed the Cooling Tower Cluster.