The above image is only a small piece of the southwestern region of the Soul Nebula, IC1848. The Soul Nebula is an emission nebula in Cassiopeia. Several small open clusters are embedded in the nebula: CR 34, 632, and 634 (in the head) and IC1848 (in the body). The object is more commonly called by the cluster designation IC1848.

The nebula complex is the eastern neighbor of IC1805 (Heart Nebula) and the two are often mentioned together as the "Heart and Soul".

W5, a radio source within the nebula (not shown), spans an area of sky equivalent to four full moons and is about 6,500 light-years away. Like other massive star-forming regions, such as Orion and Carina, W5 contains large cavities that were carved out by radiation and winds from the region's most massive stars. According to the theory of triggered star formation, the carving out of these cavities pushes gas together, causing it to ignite into successive generations of new stars. [Source Wikipedia].

Located in the Perseus Arm of the Galaxy, the Soul nebula is bright (although a telescope is needed to see it) in a region of the Galaxy where a lot of stars are forming.

There are seven star clusters which are known to be in the region of the Heart and Soul nebulae. The star cluster IC 1848 is intimately connected with the Soul nebula and has the same catalogue number. Also in this part of the sky are the famous 'Sword Handle' clusters (h and Chi Persei) in Perseus - two of the brightest star clusters in the sky.

The distance to this nebula is well determined, mainly because it has a star cluster at its centre. (It is much easier to determine the distance to a nebula if it has star clusters in it). The Soul nebula is located 6500 light years away. [Source Atlas of the Universe].

The image was captured with the Meade 12"LX200, using the Atik 383L+ mono at F7.16 (i.e. 2182mm FL). Astronomik's Ha, OIII and SII narrow band filters were used. All subs were taken at 1x1 bin, -10C, and 10 minutes each.

Image --

Ha : 40 subs (6.67 hr) on Jan 6th, 7th, 19th and 23rd.

OIII : 38 subs (6.33 hr) on Jan 6th, 7th, 15th and 19th.

SII : 27 subs (4.5 hr) on Jan 19th and 23rd.

Color mix for the image was done per the Hubble palette:

Red = SII, Green = Ha, Blue = OIII

Processing was done with PixInsight. Each filter set was integrated, processed and stretched. These were then combined with PixelMath per the Hubble palette. This final image was further processed in PI, bringing it to the level presented.

North is up, and this is a very slight crop. I am fairly pleased with the outcome. More integration would smooth the texture and make the colors less brash. I continue to use Sequence Generator Pro, for all of the camera controls, including auto-focusing and image framing.