Drifting through the Orion Arm of the Milky Way, this cosmic cloud is reminiscent of the outline of California. Popularly known as the California nebula, it is cataloged as NGC 1499. It lies  about 1500 light years away from us, and is about 100 light-years long. Visually it appears 3-4 degrees to the right of the Pleiades, and is almost 3 moon widths long. It can be seen with a 4" scope. It glows with the deep red light characteristic of hydrogen atoms recombining with electrons that were stripped away (ionized) by the energetic starlight of the the bright, hot, bluish Xi Persei, near the right hand edge and above center of this picture.

3" F6 Schmidt AstroTech refractor, Canon 300D at Prime focus
 500 sec, ISO 800
 4 photos averaged together, then brightness and contrast enhanced, rotated and cropped to fit screen