#sh2-185

The Ghost of Cassiopeia, Sh2-185 // B_Blair

Photographer's description (excerpt): "Gamma Cassiopeia is a very hot and luminous star in the middle of the W asterism of Cassiopeia. The light and radiation of this star create many dramatic details in the surrounding dust and gas, and the best of these is the Ghost of Cassiopeia itself. The Ghost is catalogued as IC63, and also as IC59 (for the fainter region). All these IC objects are but small portions of a greater Ha region called Sh2-185."

The Ghost of Cassiopeia (Sh2-185, center) and Tiansi (γ Cassiopeiae) // 文飞 刘 & Wai Wong

The star at the center of the image is Navi (γ Cassiopeiae), a quadruple star system about 550 light years from Earth. It is named after American astronaut Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom (1926-1967, Gemini 3, Apollo 1) after his own middle name spelled backwards.

The Ghost of Cassiopeia, Sh2-185 // Easternpaastro

The bright star at the top is Navi (γ Cassiopeiae), a multiple star system about 550 light years away. This star was used as a navigational reference during the early space missions, and so American astronaut Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom (1926-1967, Gemini 3, Apollo 1) named it after his own middle name spelled backwards.

The bright star is none other than Tiansi (γ Cassiopeiae, formerly Navi), a quadruple star system about 550 light years from Earth. Its name comes from the Chinese word 天駟 (Tiān Sì) meaning "heavenly quadriga" or "four horses" that pulled the chariot of Wangliang. This new name was approved by the International Astronomical Union on November 13, 2025.

The Ghost of Cassiopeia, Sh2-185 // Tedy Lupu-Stanescu