NGC 7822
Nearby star-forming regions, like NGC 7822, are exciting places to explore with a backyard telescope. The signature pink colour confirms the abundance of billowing hot hydrogen that will, in time, coalesce under gravity to form stars. There are cold dark areas, and pillars of dust that are warming in the heat from nearby protostars.
Summer evenings are an excellent time to explore these exciting places nearby in our galaxy, as many are visible. NGC 7822 is about 3,000 light years distance, and about 75 light years in diameter. Since our solar system is less than 2 light-days in diameter, NGC 7822 is about 13,000 times larger than our solar system (75x366/2).
I photographed NGC 7822 from my garden in Strasbourg France. This is an aggregate of 160 photos, where each was a 3 minute exposure (8 hours of photography with a hydrogen-enhance filter). I chose the best 123 photos to process: 61 were from July 2025 and 62 were from August 2024.