The Soul Nebula (a.k.a. IC 1848) can be found in the direction of the constellation Cassiopeia. According to Greek mythology Cassiopeia is the vain wife of a King who ruled the region around the upper Nile river. Located about 6,500 light years away, the Soul Nebula spans about 100 light years and is a neighbor to the Heart Nebula (IC 1805). The image appears mostly red due to the emission of a specific color of light emitted by excited hydrogen gas (Source APOD Feb 28, 2016).
I imaged the Soul Nebula for three consecutive nights last week. The first night was excellent seeing conditions but I had autoguiding problems in the beginning of the evening so I used up a lot of imaging time. Still I was able to use 33 x 180 second exposures. In addition, I used flats after the imaging session using the light box as described in the previous post. I had over 3 hrs worth of data on the second night, unfortunately very high thin clouds made all of the data useless. I collected over an hour of data on the 3rd night after our regular open astronomy session with Boothe Memorial Astronomical Society at Boothe Park. The conditions were good, for Stratford, however, I was unable to take flats because I forgot the light box controller. I thought about driving back with the camera attached but decided that was a bad idea. Oh well!
Location: Home Monroe, CT and Boothe Park, Stratford, CT
Date: 10-18-17, 10-20-2017
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i(a), Backyard EOS
Telescope: Orion ED80 80mm f/7.5 Apochromatic Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 600mm
f/7.5
Focal Reducer: Orion 0.8x Focal Reducer for Refractor Telescopes
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro EQ/AZ Mount
Filter: Astrodon UV/IR, Astronomik UHC
Autoguiding: QHY-5L-II-M attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope with Helical Focuser
Exposure: 33 x 180s, 23 x 180
ISO: 1600
Temp: 15 C, 15 C
Post Processing: Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop, Lightroom, Gradient Exterminator, Astronomy Tools, StarTools.
https://kurtzeppetello.smugmug.com/
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