The Iris Nebula (also known as NGC 7023 and Caldwell 4) is a bright reflection nebula in the constellation Cepheus, surrounded by dense cloud of cosmic dust where atoms cluster into molecules. It was a real challenge collecting all the data required to build a decent image revealing the darker parts of the nebula. Data was successfully gathered within 10 days with a slow progress due to weather fluctuations.

Explore Scientific CF102
AVX Mount
Canon D 40 (modded)
Ha; OIII & L-enhance Pro filters

Total integration of 13 hours
18 x 600 sec Ha
18 x 600 sec OIII
84 x 300 sec Light Frames (ISO 1600) + numerous dark & bias frames
Stacked in DSS and edited in PixInsight & PS