The Wizard Nebula is a cosmic cloud surrounding open star cluster NGC 7380. Over the years it has earned its sorcerous nickname because of its similarity in appearance to a medieval magician in a pointed hat. (It does take a little imagination!)
The Wizard Nebula (NGC 7380) (57 min total exposure Nov 2, 2023)
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The Wizard occupies an area of the sky about the size of a full moon, but it is extremely faint, almost impossible to see visually in a telescope but it reveals itself to long exposure photography.
The nebula is some 110 light-years across and about 7000 lightyears from Earth. It is located in the main part of the Milky Way – you will notice the large number of background and foreground stars. The stars of NGC 7380 have emerged from this star-forming region in the last 5 million years or so, making it a relatively young cluster. The cluster and nebula are about 7,000 lightyears from Earth.
The radiation and stellar winds of the cluster’s young stars are responsible for creating the nebula’s shape. The ultraviolet light from the luminous stars formed within the molecular cloud ionizes the nebula’s hydrogen, which in turn re-emits light in the red part of the spectrum.