WR 134, a massive Wolf-Rayet star in the constellation Cygnus, anchors a dramatic cosmic scene surrounded by her "friends"—neighboring stars and intricate nebulae shaped by their stellar winds. This luminous blue star, approximately 6,000 light-years away, is in a late, short-lived phase of stellar evolution, shedding mass through intense winds at speeds exceeding 1,000 kilometers per second. The energetic interactions between these winds and the surrounding interstellar medium have sculpted a delicate bubble of ionized gas, glowing faintly in hydrogen-alpha light.

This stunning portrait of WR 134 and her companions was the result of a collaborative 94-hour imaging effort by four amateur astrophotographers. Working together with hydrogen-alpha and oxygen-III filters, they captured the faint structures surrounding WR 134, along with contributions from nearby Wolf-Rayet stars like WR 135 and WR 136. Their combined skill and dedication reveal the ephemeral beauty of massive stars near the end of their lives, enriching the cosmos with heavy elements and energy as they prepare for their ultimate fate as supernovae.