There's a lot going on in this area at the border between
Cassiopeia and Cepheus. In the middle of this image is the
much-imaged Bubble Nebula (if you look at the largest version,
you can just make out its round outline). This wide view of the
region points out, however, that the Bubble is not alone! In the
upper right portion of the image is another emission nebula, Sharpless
2-157, more creatively known as "The Claw". Above the Bubble is the
little emission nebula Sharpless 2-159, and to the upper left is the
dimmer Sharpless 2-161, with the bright nebula NGC 7538 on its right
edge. The beautiful open star cluster M 52 sits at the bottom of the
image, and the smaller cluster NGC 7510 hangs near the top at the end
of one of "The Claw's" extensions. Throughout the image one sees lanes
and blobs of the darker dust that clutters the arms of the Milky Way.

Image data:
Camera: SBIG STL-11000
Exposure: Lum 105 minutes (15 minutes x 7); RGB 45 minutes (15 minutes x 3) each.
Telescope: Takahashi FSQ 106N