The Iris Nebula consists of a reflection nebula (illuminated by a 7th-magnitude star ), several dark nebula (the dark, dusty areas) and a star cluster (NGC 7023), located in the constellation Cepheus. It's roughly 1300 light years from Earth and about 6 light years in diameter.

This image was captured at the Astronomical Society of Kansas City's Dark Sky Site near Butler, MO on the evening of September 30, 2011 and consists of a digital "stack" of 17 images, each exposed for 10 minutes.

Technical Data:
17 x 600s Lights / Flats / Bias
Orion 190mm Mak-Newt / QHY8
Captured with Nebulosity, processed with DeepSky Stacker and Photoshop