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Sailing through Cassiopeia

Andrea Arbizzi, taken from Maremma, Italy

A vast sea of faintly lit dust in Cassiopeia envelops the Sailboat Cluster (NGC 225, upper right), an open cluster named for the way its brightest stars and the blue haze of the reflection nebula VdB 4 sketch out a sail. NGC 225 lies about 2,200 light-years away, accompanied by the dark dust lanes of LDN 1291 (just to its left in this image). The photographer collected 15 hours of unfiltered exposure with a 6-inch f/5.6 refractor and one-shot color camera.