The California Nebula, NGC 1499, is an emission nebula in the constellation Perseus. It may go without saying that its name comes from its remarkably similar shape to the US state of California, complete with the San Francisco Bay. Just like other emission nebulae, the NGC 1499 gets its red color from the ionized hydrogen contained within it. As the hydrogen is excited by the bright star, Menkib, top center, electrons jump to a higher orbit, then as they jump back to lower states, give off a photon at the specific wavelength of 656.281 nm. Since this wavelength is barely visible with our eyes, visual observation of this nebula type is nearly impossible.

For that reason, long exposures using a camera lacking an IR-cut filter is pretty much necessary to capture this light. This is exactly what I did to get this photo! I used a dedicated astronomy camera, QHY 268C, with a filter that isolates the Hydrogen-alpha and Oxygen III emissions.