NGC 7380 The Wizard

The open star cluster NGC 7380 in the constellation Cepheus is located within a cloud of interstellar gas and dust known as the Wizard Nebula. In this image, it can be seen on the left, situated at a distance of about 8,000 light-years toward the constellation Cepheus. The cluster was discovered in 1787 by Caroline Herschel (the sister and assistant of the renowned English astronomer William Herschel). I captured this over one night; it was very windy, and for a long time, I couldn't figure out why the stars weren't points but looked like sausages. I tried using StarNet in processing. I overlaid the StarNet file without stars onto the layer with stars, using transparency to slightly reduce the star halos. Full calibration was applied.