The Eskimo Nebula goes by a few names. It’s also been called the Clown Face Nebula and the Lion Nebula (though there an emission nebula more commonly referred to as the Lion Nebula. It’s in Patrick Moore’s catalog as Caldwell 39 and in the NGC catalog at 2392.

The subject is a planetary nebula in Gemini. A planetary nebula is made of the outer atmosphere of a star roughly the mass of our sun that got blown off near the end of its life. The remaining core of the now dead star is still emitting a lot of light because it’s so hot. The ultraviolet light from that white dwarf is what causes the gas to glow.

This nebula is about 6,500 light years away so the light we see started toward us when humanity was transitioning from the late neolithic to the copper age. A lot has happened in that 6,500 years!

This image is 48h 40m of HOOSY (with RGB stars) data. For all the technical details, see astrobin.