Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cassiopeia (Cas)  ·  Contains:  IC 1871
LBN 673: The Soul of the Soul, Lilith Gaither
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LBN 673: The Soul of the Soul

LBN 673: The Soul of the Soul, Lilith Gaither
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LBN 673: The Soul of the Soul

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Description

A month away from new data really let me run wild with my processing on this one. This was good, as about 500 new color processing tools came to the alpha of StarTools 1.6 & I needed time to digest them all (not that pretending to know what I'm doing while making blind adjustments is really any digesting of anything). In the end, I'm quite happy with the way this region turned out.

A wondrously intertwining patch of hydrogen making up a detailed part of the larger Westerhout 5 HII region. The chiseled structures of hydrogen gas an absorption dust lie 7500 light years from us within the northern constellation of Cassiopeia. Its northerly declination allowed for recovery of further structure and detail in the final image.

There are four main aspects of this nebula which catch my eye. The first is the dark ridge-like structure, reminiscent of LBN 354 and The Cygnus Wall. The whole region conveys the same light-dark mix, which has always appealed to me. The second is the pillar-like structure along the dark patch at center. This region appears to show some signs or erosion from the clusters within the nebula, like IC 1848 (off frame). The third is the brighter outgassing to the right, which seems to be heavily caused by UV wind from IC 1848. The fourth is the faint arc at bottom left, which reminds me most of the nebula background from The Melotte 15 Region at the center of the Heart Nebula, which is part of the same HII complex as LBN 673. That region is what inspired me to name this one. If centrally-located Melotte 15 is the heart of The Heart, then the extravagant details of LBN 673 must make it the soul of The Soul.

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LBN 673: The Soul of the Soul, Lilith Gaither