This region of gas, dust, and stars is one of the arm bands visible to us in our own galaxy, The Milky Way.
Too cloudy to set up after a full day of rain, the sky opened up for about 45 minutes to yield some of the best views I've ever seen. At about 1am, the clouds rolled back in and brought my picture taking to an end.
The HII (red) region is roughly 2200 +/- 100 Light Years away.