This little nebula, situated between the North America (NGC 7000) and Pelican (IC 5070) nebulae, has been called the Skull Nebula by some astrophotographers. I, however, think that its shape and bright stars in the position of eyes is much more suggestive of a storm trooper's helmet from Star Wars. As Michael Bakich, Photo Editor of Astronomy Magazine points out, one argument against this is that it lies in our Milky Way, and not in "a galaxy far, far away."

Telescope: Celestron Compustar C14.

Exposures: HaRGB=720:110:110:110=15 hours 40 minutes total exposure at f/8.3.

This image was published in the July, 2017 issue of Astronomy Magazine.