SBIG ST8300C, Total 1:45 hours = RGB 21x5 min
Boren-Simon 2.8-8 ED OTA - http://www.powernewts.com - EQ6 mount, guided w/PHD and EQMOD
This image is 1069 pixels wide.

IC 63 (or Sh2-185: lower right in this image) and IC 59 (upper-middle in this image) are two nearby arc-shaped nebulae with relatively simple geometries and minimal obscuring material.

The two regions, in spite of a similar projected distance from their ionizing star (Gamma Cas. - see below), have very different observational properties, both in continuum emission and in the presence and strength of line emission from molecular species (ref: http://iopscience.iop.org/1538-3881/129/2/954). Both regions are been blown away into interstellar space by the nearby Gamma Cassiopeiae - a star of no comparison to our own sun.

Located approx 610 light years from Earth, Gamma Cassiopeiae it is 15 times more massive than our sun, 70,000 times more luminos, and 14 times larger in radius. It rotates at about 7km/second (i.e. ~25,000 km/hour).

Gamma Cassiopeiae is an eruptive variable star, whose brightness changes irregularly between +2.20 mag and +3.40 mag. It is the prototype of the Gamma Cassiopeiae variable stars. Although it is a fairly bright star, it has no traditional Arabic or Latin name. In Chinese, however, it has the name Tsih, meaning "the whip". It is located at the center of the distinctive "W" shape that forms the Cassiopeia constellation. American astronaut Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom nicknamed the star Navi after his own middle name spelled backwards. The star was used as an easily identifiable navigational reference point during space missions.

The apparent magnitude of this star was +2.2 in 1937, +3.4 in 1940, +2.9 in 1949, +2.7 in 1965 and now it is +2.15. At maximum intensity, ã Cassiopeiae outshines both á Cassiopeiae (magnitude +2.25) and â Cassiopeiae (magnitude +2.3). (ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_Cassiopeiae).