This area of dust and gas in the constellation of Cepheus is known as Wolf's Cave.

Van den Bergh 152 is a blue reflection nebula at top left in the image. The large dark nebula stretching through the frame is Barnard 175, a Bok Globule. This complex is located 1,400 light-years away.

Full of very faint dust, this area is part of a large molecular cloud named the Cepheus Flare by Edwin Hubble. The opaque dust blocks most of the starlight behind it, but blue light from a young star is scattered and reflected off some of the particles to illuminate the reflection part of the nebula. Some of the faint dust is glowing in a dim red color from photoluminescence, forming an Extended Red Emission nebula (ERE). These dust grains convert the star's ultraviolet radiation to visible red light

The 9.3 magnitude star HD210884 (B.D. +69° 1231), inside VdB 152, seems to be powering the nebulae in the area, but is not thought to have formed there, but rather is just passing through.

Wolf's Cave was first discovered photographically by August Kopff, an assistant to Max Wolf, and announced by Wolf in 1908 in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 69, p.117.

The van den Bergh catalog was published by Sidney van den Bergh in 1966 from a study of the Palomar Sky Survey and contains 158 reflection nebulae.

Barnard 175 was cataloged by E. E. Barnard in 1919.

North is to the right in the above image.

Wolf's Cave Catalogs: VdB 152, LBN 531 Common Name: Wolf's Cave Object Type: Dark, Emission, Reflection Complex Size: 9' x 3.5' Constellation: Cepheus Image Field Centered At: RA: 22h 12m 06s Dec: +70° 41' 29"