The big question mark of Cepheus, and the widefield counterpart to the M51 "question mark" a few galleries over. The curl is Sh2-171, a star-forming region some 40 light-years across and about 3,000 light-years away. Its ring, NGC 7822, is glowing hydrogen blown open by the young cluster Berkeley 59 — home to BD+66 1673, one of the hottest known stars in the solar neighbourhood at around 45,000 K. At its bright heart lies Cederblad 214, whose pillars and dark bays trace out the "Teddy Bear" the capture rig was pointed at, and whose newest stars are still eroding the clouds that made them. The dot is Sh2-170, a small nebula of its own that lines up only by chance: at about 9,000 light-years, it lies three times farther away.

Shot over fifteen nights, from late August to mid September 2026: sixty and a half hours of narrowband, with nearly twenty-two hours of RGB for natural star colour. Rendered in a Foraxx palette, processed starless with the RGB stars added back, drizzled 2× and finished in Photoshop.

• Coordinates: RA 00h 01m 47s, Dec +66° 34′ 08″ (Cepheus)
• Optics: William Optics RedCat 61 (300 mm, f/4.9)
• Camera: ZWO ASI2600MM Pro, ZWO EFW, EAF, CAA rotator
• Filters: Chroma 3nm Hα / OIII / SII, 36 mm; Chroma R / G / B, 36 mm
• Integration: 83h 11m — Hα 17h (102 × 600″), OIII 26h 30m (159 × 600″), SII 17h (102 × 600″), R 6h 29m (32 × 120″ + 65 × 300″), G 8h 02m (31 × 120″ + 84 × 300″), B 7h 20m (30 × 120″ + 76 × 300″), L 50m (30 × 100″)
• Captured: 2026-08-26 to 2026-09-16