IC-5146, The Cocoon Nebula, is a combination hydrogen emission & reflection nebula located in the northern part of the constellation of Cygnus, not far from the star cluster M-39. It lies approximately 3000 light years from Earth and is 15 light years in diameter. The dark nebula Barnard 168 can be seen trailing off to the lower left hand corner of this image.
This image, acquired on August 31, 2014, is a 1 hour 30 minute integration of 6 minute exposures through the Celestron C-11 at f/2, using the HyperStar III imaging system and the Starlight Express SXVR-H694C color CCD camera, operating at -10 degrees below ambient temperature and binned 1 X 1. Guided, captured & combined using Maxim DL5 Pro. Post processed using PhotoShop CS2, Gradient XTerminator, StarShrink, Carboni's Astro Tools and NoiseWare.