NGC1499

NGC 1499 the California Nebula is located about 1,000 lightyears away and stretches about 100 lightyears long.

The nebula’s cosmic glow is most likely caused by Xi Persei, the scorching hot star that can be seen rising above it. The California Nebula is found in the Orion Arm of our Milky Way galaxy. The California Nebula can be seen from Earth in the Perseus constellation, which just so happens to be the radiant of one of the most prolific annual meteor showers seen from Earth, the Perseid meteor shower.

This image has been processed using a quite unusual OSH palette, where the (normally red) Hydrogen gas glow has been mapped to the blue channel and the normally blue Xi Persei has been mapped to the red channel.

Image aligned, integrated and colour mapped by Arc Fortnight, original data downloaded from Telescope.live