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Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Soul Nebula, IC 1848, as a two frame mosaic



This image is originally shot this Autumn between 27 and 29.10. I haven't publish it before, since I have had so much material to share. The new imaging system gives me a nice field of view, with a high resolution. 
63x63 arc minutes at a scale of 0,95 arc seconds/pixel. That's over a square degree of sky.

IC 1848, the Soul Nebula
Ra 02h 51m 36.24s Dec +60° 26′ 53.9"  Click for a large image!

Mapped colors from an emission of the ionized elements, Red=Sulfur, Green=Hydrogen and the Blue =Oxygen. The photo is stitched together from two separate shots.

An experimental starless view

Details of the actual nebula stands out better in this starless view.

Info

Soul Nebula, (Sh2-199, LBN 667) is an emission nebula in constellation Cassiopeia. IC 1848 is a cluster inside Soul Nebula. Distance is about 7.500 light years. This complex is a Eastern neighbor of IC 1805, the "Heart Nebula" and they are often mentioned together as Heart and Soul.

A wider field photo

In this wide field image of mine, the Soul Nebula is shown with its neighbor, the Heart nebula. Image is shot with the Canon EF 200mm f1.8 lens, Baader narrowband filters and the QHY9 cooled astronomical camera. My older photos of the Soul nebula can be seen HERE

Nebula in visual spectrum

Red is a dominant color since the strongest emission line of hydrogen, H-alpha, emits red light. Bluish hues are from ionized oxygen, O-III

Hydrogen alpha image

Nebula in H-alpha light alone.


Technical details

Processing work flow
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Deconvolution with a CCDStack2 Positive Constraint, 33 iterations, added at 50% weight
Color combine in PS CS3
Levels and curves in PS CS3.

Imaging optics
Celestron Edge HD 1100 @ f7 with 0,7 focal reducer for Edge HD 1100 telescope

Cameras and filters
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U16 and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x2
Astrodon filter, 5 nm H-alpha

Exposure times
H-alpha, 24 x 1200s = 8h (4h/panel)
O-III, 6x1200 (1h/panel), binned 4x4
S-II, 6x1200 (1h/panel), binned 4x4
Total 12h





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