Photo of the Week for March 3, 2017

For a constellation that lacks a single Messier object and has only a few outstanding deep-sky targets, Cepheus is certainly popular with astrophotographers. Perhaps that’s because from Canadian latitudes the constellation is visible all year round. Whatever the reason, SkyNews receives an unusually high number of submissions featuring targets in Cepheus. One of them is NGC7380, featured above. This object has something for both visual observers and astrophotographers, as it’s an emission nebula enveloping an open star cluster. The broad nebulosity shows well in photos but is rather faint, visually, even in large amateur telescopes. The cluster is approximately 20 arc minutes in diameter and quite sparse, but within reach of modest optics.

This photograph was captured during a 10-night span last September, from Scarborough, Ontario, by Doug Nan Jiang. He acquired a total of more than 20 hours image data through S-II, H-alpha and O-III filters with a QHYCCD 814 A camera and Takahashi FSQ-85ED apochromatic refractor telescope.