NGC 7822 is a young star forming complex in the constellation of Cepheus. It was discovered on the 16th of november 1829 by John Herschel.

The complex encompasses the emission region ‘sharpless 171’ and the young cluster of stars named ‘Berkeley 59’. The complex is believed to be around 2600 to 3300 light-years from earth. The comlpex also includes one of the hottest stars discovered within 1 Kiloparsec (3260 light-years) of our sun. The star is one of the primary sources illuminating the nebula.

Capturing this beautiful region in space was no easy task. To create this image I used a technique called ‘Narrowband imaging’, this is done using a monochrome (black & white) camera with filters in front of it. These filters are very tiny and expensive pieces of glass allowing only very specific wavelenghts of light to pass through it. This technique allows me to capture only what I need and nothing else, it’s great to distinguish different elements from each other.

I assign these black & white photos to the different red, green & blue channels every digital image consists of. In this case I used the famous hubble palette: sulfur to red, hydrogen to green & oxygen to blue. Because these images are not a representation of ‘real’ colors (= how humans would see it) I have a bit of creative freedom in terms of the colors, which resulted in this image.