IC1871 is a part of the “Soul” nebula (IC1848). If you look at a wide field image of the Soul nebula, it is the portion near the dark lane on the upper left side. The image shown is a narrow band image of that area. This nebula is located around 6500 light years away in the constellation Cassiopeia.

(Credit: Leonardo Orazi).

The much larger Soul nebula has W5, a radio source within it, which spans an area of sky equivalent to four full moons. 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. The complete Soul nebula contains some of the best evidence yet for the triggered star formation theory. Scientists analyzing it have been able to show that the ages of the stars become progressively and systematically younger with distance from the center of the cavities. [Source Wikipedia].

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 : 46 subs (7.67 hr) on Jan 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th and Feb 6th and 8th.

OIII : 49 subs (8.17 hr) on Jan 25th, 26th, 27th and Feb 6th and 8th.

SII : 52 subs (8.67 hr) on Jan 28th and Feb 6th, 7th and 8th.

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 to the right, and this is a very slight crop. I rotated this image for dramatic affect.

I am fairly pleased with the outcome. There is quite a bit of integration time in this image. I continue to use Sequence Generator Pro, for all of the camera controls, including auto-focusing and image framing.