NGC 7023 - Iris Nebula - Cepheus

Object Data: Lying in the western part of Cepheus, this beautiful object is a fairly unusual pure reflection nebula, caused by light from the central magnitude 7 star, SAO 19158, being reflected off the abundance of dust particles left over from when the star was formed. NGC 7023 is really a misnomer since it refers to the open cluster visible in this image immediately to the west of the nebulous region. The correct designation for the nebula itself is LBN 487. Date: 01/06/2005 Location: Southern France Conditions: Calm, no dew, transparency=8, seeing=9 Optics: Astro-Physics 155 EDF f/7 working at f/7 Mount: AP 900 GTO on Portable Pier Camera: SBIG ST-8E / CFW-8 Guiding: Integral ST-8E autoguider Exposure: LRGB: Luminance: 8x 15 minutes; RGB: 2x 15:15:30 minutes binned 2x2 Processing: Image acquisition and initial processing using Maxim DL, subsequent processing in RegiStar and Photoshop. Notes: This is my first CCD attempt at NGC 7023 and replaces my film image taken as long ago as 1998! Is this another Common Name misnomer? I called it the Iris Nebula to fit with convention, but apart from the colour it seems to bear no real resemblance to an Iris - to me this should really be the Cave Nebula! Meanwhile the object commonly know as the Cave Nebula (Sh2-155 - thank you Steve) seems to bear no resemblance to a cave!