Heart and Soul Nebulas

Source

Description

Located in the Perseus Arm of the Galaxy, the Heart nebula (left) and the Soul nebula (right) are two bright nebulae (although a telescope is needed to see them) in a region of the Galaxy where a lot of stars are forming. IC 1805 (the Heart nebula) is also sometimes called the 'Running Dog nebula' because it is said to resemble a running dog when viewed through a telescope. The distance to these two nebulae are well determined, mainly because they have star clusters at the centre of them. (It is much easier to determine the distance to a nebula if it has star clusters in it). The Heart and Soul nebulae are located in the Perseus Arm of the Galaxy 6000 and 6500 light years away. This part of the Perseus Arm has a lot of star formation regions and there are many young star clusters in this region.

Heart and Soul Nebulas
Heart and Soul Nebulas

Equipment and processing

Telescope: 135mm F2.8 lens

Mount: Meade LXD75

Camera: ST 8300M

Filters: Baader Ha,SII,OIII 7nm

Guiding: PHD

Processing: PixInsight

Capture software: Maxim

Exposures: Ha: bin1 20x600 OIII: bin1 20x600 SII: bin1 20x600

Location: Parsippany,NJ