The blue area near the bottom end of this long interstellar
cloud is caused by light from the bright star, which happens to
be passing through the cloud, reflecting off its dust. The
reflection is blocked by thicker areas of this cloud, which appear
darker on this image. The rest of the long cloud seems to be
illuminated simply by the background light of the Milky Way Galaxy.
Van den Bergh 152 (from a listing of reflection nebula compiled in 1966
by Sidney Van den Bergh) lies 1400 light years away in the
constellation Cepheus.

Image data:
Camera: SBIG ST-4000XCM
Exposure: 5 1/2 hours (10 minutes x 33)
Telescope: 10" Schmidt-Newtonian, Baader MPCC