The Flaming Star Nebula

Designtaed as IC 405 (the 405th entry in the "Indx catalogue", a supplement to the NGC catalogue produced by John Louis Emil Dreyer) this nebula lies about 1500 light years away in the constellation of Auriga. There is, of course, no actual flame here, rather the apperance of smoke and flame due to ionised clouds of gas forming an emission nebula driven by energetic ultra violet light coming from the bright star AE Auriga.

Photographed in narrowband wavelenghths of SII, Ha and OIII the colours are artificial but bring out the complex filamentary nature of the ionised hydrogen gas overlaid with darker carbon dust   particles. This image represents about four hours of exposure in total.