IC1848 nebula and the star cluster embedded in it are located just 4 degrees north of h Persei, one of the two members of the famous Double Cluster. The same nebula also hosts Collinder 33 (Cr33) and Collinder 34 (Cr34) star clusters. The faint nebulae IC1871 and Sh2-198 are just near the IC1848.
Just one and a half degree north-west from IC1848 is located the IC1805 complex. This rich but faint nebular complex resides 5° NNE of the Double Cluster in Perseus. The largest and very diffuse part of it, IC1805, contains large and bright star cluster Melotte 15 at its center. Other star clusters (NGC1027, Berkeley 65 and Markarian 6) are located around its edges. The brightest part of IC1805 complex consists of nebulae IC1795 and NGC896 which together are intersected by narrow NW to SE streaks of dust.
(Info adapted from http://www.astrosurf.com/jwisn/)

Remarkable features Click the image to view and interact with the hi-res image. NGC1027 is a star open cluster large 20 arcminutes and a visual magnitude of 6.70. Maffei I is an elliptical galaxy only about 5 megaparsecs way. The reddish glow is all that remains of the galaxy's light after traversing the clouds of our own Galaxy. Maffei II is a spiral galaxy about 5 megaparsecs distant.   Find Chart The position of IC1848 and IC1805 Nebulae (in the red circle) in Cassiopea. Image from Cartes du Ciel.

In order to produce the color image seen here, I worked with data coming from 8 different photographic plates taken at Palomar Observatory between 1989 and 1993. The original file is 22,004x16,108 pixels with a resolution of about 1 arcsec per pixel. The image show an area of sky large 6.1° x 4.5° (for comparison, the full-Moon is about 0.5° in diameter).
Copyright: Davide De Martin (http://www.skyfactory.com).

Other images of the same celestial field found online

• http://starandgarden.cside.com/sub1-ic1848-3.htm by Isao Kowatari;
• http://www.narrowbandimaging.com/images/ic1805_widefield_200mm_6303_s2hao3_hd.jpg by Richard Crisp;
• http://home.planet.nl/~astro.ccd.scholten/foto/nebula/ic1848_1805.jpg by T. Scholten.

This image is a composite from black and white images taken with the Palomar Observatory's 48-inch (1.2-meter) Samuel Oschin Telescope as a part of the second National Geographic Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS II). The images were recorded on two type of glass photographic plates - one sensitive to red light and the other to blue light and later they were digitized. Credit: Caltech, Palomar Observatory, Digitized Sky Survey.