Flaming Star Nebula

IC405, also known as Sharpless 2-229, is a reflection/emission nebula located in the constellation Auriga.  It is located about 1500 light years away and spans about 5 light years.  This nebula is being excited by the star AE Augirae, a bright (magnitude 6), variable star.  This star is located on the right side of this image.  The red portions of this image are the emission portion and the bluer parts are the reflections from the blue, type O, AE Aurigae.

Note that AE Aurigae was located near the trapezium of the Orion Nebula about 2.5 million years ago and was thrown out of that area by gravitational interactions with other massive stars.

Adam Block has done a similar image of this area with his 24" telescope that shows a bit more detail in the reflection areas.  His image is an LRGB image and it may be worth the time for me to go back and get some Lum data for this image to see if I can't improve the details.  There is also a bit of a halo in this image about AE Aurigae.  Its not clear how hard one should work on taming this halo.