The California Nebula – NGC 1499 – is a vast hydrogen gas emission nebula about 1000 light years away in the constellation of Perseus.  It is named as such because of its vague resemblance to the US state of California.It is a very large, faint and diffuse object, about four times the diameter of the moon.  It is almost completely invisible visually without specialist filters and was not discovered until the advent of astrophotography in 1884.  The nebula shines by reflecting the light of the bright star Markib.  It shines red because Hydrogen atoms, when excited by nearby bright sources like stars, emit or re-radiate light at the 656nm wavelength which is in the red part of the spectrum to our eyes. The California Nebula Image Technical Data The California Nebula is so large that most telescopes cannot get the nebula in the field of view, nowhere near in fact. …