LDN 1158 and NGC 7023

These clouds of cosmic dust drift about 1300 light-years away along the fertile star fields of the constellation Cepheus. The beautiful Iris Nebula blooms in the lower center. It is not the only nebula in the sky to evoke the image of flowers, its graceful and symmetrical shape stretches for about 6 light years. The dominant blue color of this nebula is characteristic of the pervasive dust grains that reflect the light of a hot, bluish nearby star. But the darker, darker dust clouds cover most of the nearly 4-degree wide field of view. In the center is the LDN 1158 complex (Lynds Dark Nebula). Here, still hidden, stars are forming inside the cores of dark clouds. However, a search with sharper images can identify Herbig-Haro objects, jets of glowing gas emanating from newly formed stars