A Stellar Blast Furnace: Westerhout 5 (IC 1848, The Soul Nebula) (Daniel Erickson)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Cassiopeia (Cas) · Contains: IC 1848 · IC 1871 · Sh2-195 · Sh2-197 · Sh2-198 · Sh2-199 · Sh2-201

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A Stellar Blast Furnace: Westerhout 5 (IC 1848, The Soul Nebula)

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A Stellar Blast Furnace: Westerhout 5 (IC 1848, The Soul Nebula)

I've been studying Cassiopeia. It is a fascinating region, although there is not much wide field glory that my humble RedCat can capture. Of course, there are the Heart and Soul Nebulae, and it was the latter that I chose to shoot last night. Truth be told, everyone gives their attention to the Heart, but to me, the forgotten Soul is a truly amazing region that really helps us to understand star formation...and those giant "O" stars! If only I had better skills and equipment.

The Soul is faint and with the full moon lingering nearby and my Bortle 7 skies, this may not have been the best choice, but there was no turning back. The resulting data was marginal and what you see here is the best I could do with my still-limited post processing skills. If you care to help me by commenting with tips, tricks and techniques, I will happily listen and learn.

Last night was the first clear night since 20 Oct, but the winds were too much to do anything on that occasion. Before that, 5 Oct was my last real shoot. It's been a long time and what I've found, as a newcomer, is that processing skills decay very, very quickly. Now I understand in my marrow why so many of you re-process images during these cloudy times!

I hope you can enjoy the image, remember the beginner's pain we've all felt, and encourage my lagging morale with a few kind and constructive words!

Clear Skies!

Daniel

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	3976313
PixInsight job	WWQUZ589TUKP3SOM2DLZBIELKLV1XGZZ
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

RA (center)	02h54m08s.89
RA (top/left)	02h57m31s.87
RA (top/right)	02h37m38s.81
RA (bottom/right)	02h51m10s.48
RA (bottom/left)	03h11m08s.19

Dec (center)	+60°24′05″.4
Dec (top/left)	+62°29′12″.9
Dec (top/right)	+59°51′47″.0
Dec (bottom/right)	+58°18′43″.4
Dec (bottom/left)	+60°48′26″.10

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A Stellar Blast Furnace: Westerhout 5 (IC 1848, The Soul Nebula)

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A Stellar Blast Furnace: Westerhout 5 (IC 1848, The Soul Nebula)

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