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The Soul Nebula forms a nice pair with IC 1805, the Heart Nebula, but what characterizes best both is that they are star forming regions. Both are plagued with YSOs (Young Stellar Objects), Herbig Haro Objects as well as “Pillars-of-Creation”-like regions. These regions mean that the young, blue and massive stars are carving the surrounding gas and dust clouds. Located in the constelation Cassiopeia about 6500 light years away, the whole Soul Nebula encompasses about 120×60 arc-minutes. This image was taken with narrowband filters (Ha, OIII) and mapped to a slightly modified natural color.
Additional Information
Object
Name(s): IC 1848. The Soul Nebula
Type: Emission Nebula
RA: 02h 51m 17s
Dec: +60º 24’ 52”
Constellation: Cassiopeia
Size (arcmin): 120×60 arcmin
Magnitude: +6.5
Distance: 6500 light years
Image
Date: 2020-11-05 to 2021-02-11
Location: Curiosity2 Observatory, New Mexico Skies, Mayhill, NM, USA
Size (arcmin): 22×32 arcmin
Telescope: 24” (61 cm) f/6.5 Reflector
Camera: FLI PL16803 (4096x4096pix)
Guiding: Astrodon MonsterMOAG off-axis guider
Total exposure: 19.5 hours (Ha: 10h 40m; OIII: 7h 20m; RGB: 1h 30m)
Processing: CCDStack, Photoshop CC 2021