IC 63 is a “comet” or “cone” shaped emission nebula located approximately 600 light-years from the Earth in the constellation Cassiopeia.  The very large, and intensely bright, star Gamma Cassiopeiae is only 3 to 4 light-years from the nebula and is just out of the field of view of the image.  The intense radiation pressure from this star is the prime driver shaping and illuminating the structure of IC 63.

The image above is known as a mapped, or false, color image and was acquired using narrowband filters.  It was assembled using the standard Hubble palette with SII mapped to Red, Ha mapped to Green and OIII mapped to Blue.  The stars were overlaid with color data from a separate RGB image.  This was accomplished in Photoshop with the purpose of displaying stars that approximate true colors.