The California Nebula (NGC 1499) is an emission nebula located in the constellation Perseus. It is so named because it appears to resemble the outline of the US State of California on long exposure photographs.
It lies at a distance of about 1,000 light years from Earth.
Discovered by Edward Barnard in 1885, the California nebula is a large and relatively close nebula in the Orion Arm of our Galaxy. The nebula glows because of the radiation from the intensely hot, class O star, Xi Persei, the large blue star at the bottom of this picture.

Technical info:
TS 80mm f6 APO triplet refractor
Canon 40D + IDAS LPS2 (light pollution) filter - exposure 40x 5 min (3hrs 20min)
Canon 40D mono modification + 12nm Ha filter - exposure 38x 10min (6hrs 20min)
Total exposure: 9hrs 40min