Day 1608 #DailyPhoto #SkyWatch #Astrophotography The California Nebula is a large, faint nebula in the #Perseus constellation. It is about 1000 light years away. Its fluorescence comes from the hydrogen beta gas being energized by O7 star #Menkib which is the bright blue star in this image. I salvaged about 3.5 hours of exposure from a few nights ago when I forgot to turn my dew heater on. This explains why I wasn't able to get much detail in the nebula itself. #StillLearning

Molecular clouds everywhere in the #Perseus constellation.
Down the center, the nebula #LBN749, crossed by the dark nebula #B3. #NGC1333 stands out at the lower right, somewhat asking for more attention with longer focal lengths. But the most prominent and obvious object in the field is of course #NGC1499, the California Nebula, a celestial brushstroke of hydrogen ionized by the giant O7 star #Menkib, ξ Per
https://astrob.in/ffn52r/0/