Like other emission nebula, the red color arises hydrogen gas energized by a cluster of newborn stars. Two small bands of early star formation appear as "tadpoles" in the lower left of the nebula, swimming toward its heart.
This image combined 2 hours of H-alpha exposures with 60 minutes of red, 30 minutes of green, and 50 minutes of blue exposures, during a hazy night. An ST10XME camera was used through a 4" refractor.
