Cepheus is a circumpolar constellation for mid-northern latitudes, and it includes part of the Milky Way. As such, many open clusters are located in this region, including some of the finest in the whole sky. There are also many regions of red emission nebulosity in this area, the largest of those are IC 1396 (at right in the photograph) and NGC 7822 (lower left). The countless stars of the Milky Way are partly obscured by large-scale dark nebulae which absorb the light of the stars lying behind them.

The constellation Cepheus contains 588 square degrees of the sky, its center culminates on September 29th at midnight.

Milky Way Vista - Cygnus to Cassiopeia, zoom lens photograph.