This image is remixed, because I produced an earlier version about a year ago (with data collected about 2 years before that) which I was never happy with. This evening I decided to completely reprocess it, from the masters onwards. I'm still not completely happy, but it's a lot better than the last version.

NGC 7380 is an open cluster of stars, and, as is often the case, it is associated with a star-forming emission nebula. The nebula, catalogued as Lynds Bright Nebula (LBN) 511, is more often known as the Wizard Nebula.

Why is it called that? It has the form of a wizard in his classic pointed hat, reclining with both arms outstretched, as we can see in the orange/yellow parts of the image. He is facing to the right.

This nebula, in the constellation Cepheus, is in the main, dense band of the Milky Way, and that is the reason there are so many background stars; over 7000 in this image.

The major star energising the nebula with X-Ray radiation, and sculpting its shape via its strong stelllar winds, is the binary star DH Cephei (HIP 112470 in the Hipparchos catalogue) which is clearly visible top right of the wizard's left hand. Despite being a double star it appears as one, because they are very close, with an orbital period of 2.11 days. The two stars are almost identical, both being O-type, massive stars. And they are very young, with an estimated age of less than 2 million years.

The whole structure is about 9000 light years from Earth, based on parallax measurements.

I've had another go at it and reduced the stars a bit.