Captured recently from Grand Mesa Observatory’s System 1 using the new QHY600 60 Megapixel Full Frame Monochrome CMOS camera mounted on the Takahashi 130 FSQ that we have the honor of testing for QHYCCD.

A couple of weeks ago I posted an image of the Soul Nebula without stars as “work in progress” so here is the final result with the more natural star color made possible by inserting stars from the LRGB image into the starless image. In this Hubble Palette version (SHO) the H-Alpha is mapped to green, SII is mapped to red and OIII is mapped to the blue channel and while the colors in this image are not the true colors, the narrowband filters used in the making of this Hubble Palette image reveal much more of the hidden gasses not visible in a broadband image.

Captured over 5 nights in October and November 2020 for a total acquisition time of 23.4 hours.

7000 light-years distant in the constellation of Cassiopeia lies the emission nebula colloquially known as the Soul Nebula. The gases (mostly hydrogen) that comprise the nebula are being ionized by the stars within the region and as a result, the gases glow, much like a neon sign. The pressures exerted upon the material by the stars nearby are causing the material to become compressed. When enough of the gas becomes highly compacted, it triggers the birth of new stars. In effect, this is a beautiful snapshot of a multimillion-year process of an enormous cloud of dust and gas transforming itself into new stars.

Technical Details

Captured and processed by: Terry Hancock

Location: GrandMesaObservatory.com Purdy Mesa, Colorado

Dates of Capture October 18, 19, 21, 22, November 11th 2020

LUM 46 min 23 x 120 sec

RED 46 min 23 x 120 sec

GREEN 44 min 22 x 120 sec

BLUE 40 min 20 x 120 sec

HA 560 min 56 x 600 sec

OIII 350 min 35 x 600 sec

SII 320 min 32 x 600 sec

Narrowband Filters by Chroma

Camera: QHY600 Monochrome CMOS Photographic version

Gain 60, Offset 76 in Read Mode Photographic 16 bit

Calibrated with Dark, Bias and Flat Frames

Optics: Walter Holloway's Takahashi FSQ 130 APO Refractor @ F5

Image Scale: 1.19 arcsec/pix

Field of View: 3d 7' 41.0" x 2d 3' 5.3 (127.3 x 190.1 arcmin)

EQ Mount: Paramount ME

Image Acquisition software Maxim DL6 Pre Processing in Pixinsight Post Processed in Photoshop CC