IC 5146, The Cocoon Nebula (Sharpless 2-125, Caldwell 19) in Cygnus, is a star-forming nebula that lies about 4000 light-years from Earth. The central star formed about 100,000 years ago. The emission nebula is surrounded by the dark nebula, Barnard 168.  The dark nebula in front of the emission nebula is LDN 1055.

Telescope: Celestron Compustar C14.

Exposures: LRGB=390:60:50:50minutes=9hrs 10minutes total exposure at f/8.3.

This image was selected as an Astronomy Picture of the Day on Astronomy.com.