Galactic Grotto

Located along the plane of the Milky Way in the Cepheus constellation is the diffuse emission nebula Sh2-155, commonly referred to as the Cave Nebula.  This widefield view shows the so-called Cave at centre of the image, critically located at the boundary of the massive Cepheus molecular cloud and the hot, young stars of the Cepheus OB-3 association which ionize the surrounding gases to great effect. 

Location of the Cave Nebula

Overall the features are very faint and even with a total integration time of nearly 40-hours for the full data-set the Cave is difficult to capture and process using the Hubble SHO palette but nonetheless has resulted in a striking final image (see top-of-the-page).  An alternative bicolour HOO cropped version (see below) perhaps shows the details of Cave itself better?

 IMAGING DETAILS
ObjectSH2-155 Cave Nebula  AKA Caldwell 9
ConstellationCepheus
Distance2,400  light-years
Size 50 x 30 arc minutes  ~70.0 light-years;  Cave Nebula ~10.0 light- years  
Apparent Magnitude+7.7
  
Scope Takahashi FSQ 106  FL 530mm  f/5  +  Moonlight Nightcrawler focuser  
MountParamount MyT
GuidingYes
CameraQSI 683-WSG8    KAF-8300 full frame CCD sensor   5.4nm pixels  
 FOV 1.94o x 1.46o   Resolution 2.1”/pix.   Image array 3326 x 2,507 pix   
ProcessingDeep Sky Stacker,  PixInsight v1.8.8-7,  Photoshop CS3, Topaz Denoise
Image Location              Centre  –  RA 22:57:37.145      DEC +62:32:54.296                      
Exposures20 Ha  30 OIII  29 SII x 1,800 secs  @ -20C Total Integration Time: 39hr 30min     
Calibration24 x 1,800 secs Darks   x200 Bias  &  x32  Flat Darks  
Location & DarknessDeep Sky West – amateur hosting facility near Rowe, New Mexico  – USA    SQM Typically >= 21.7
Date & TimeQ3  2018