The Cave Nebula in the popular constellation of Cepheus (in mythology an Ethiopian king, consort of Cassiopeia and father of Andromeda) is a relatively rare target for astrophotographers. It is about 2400 light years away from us and has a diameter of about 70 light years. In the sky it appears as large as the moon. It is an emission nebula whose atoms are caused to glow by the extreme ultraviolet radiation of neighboring hot stars.
The image of this nebula was taken in the town of Hennef with a telescope of only 8 cm aperture and exposed for approx. 7 1/2 hours on a CCD camera. Since it is an emission nebula, various filters were used and the image was also post-processed in the computer.
Picture and text: Rüdiger Fischer.
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