Located about 6,000 light-years from Earth, the Heart and Soul nebulae form a vast star-forming complex that makes up part of the Perseus spiral arm of our Milky Way galaxy. The nebula to the right is the Heart, designated IC 1805 and named after its resemblance to a human heart.  My image covers an area of the sky over ten times as wide as the full moon and eight times as high (5.5 x 3.9 degrees) in the constellation Cassiopeia.

IC 1805 is an emmision nebula some 7,500 ly away from Earth. It was discovered by William Herschel on 3 November 1787. It is an emission nebula showing glowing ionized hydrogen gas and darker dust lanes.  The brightest part of the nebula (a knot at its western edge) is separately classified as NGC 896, because it was the first part of the nebula to be discovered. The nebula's intense red output and its morphology are driven by the radiation emanating from a small group of stars near the nebula's center. This open cluster of stars contains a few bright stars nearly 50 times the mass of our Sun, and many more dim stars that are only a fraction of our Sun's mass.

To the left is the Soul nebula, also known as the Embryo nebula, IC 1848. It is also an emission nebula and several small open clusters are embedded in the nebula.  Small emission nebula IC 1871 is present just left of the top of the head, and small emission nebulae 670 and 669 are just below the lower back area.  The Perseus arm lies further from the center of the Milky Way than the arm that contains our sun. The Heart and Soul nebulae stretch out nearly 580 light-years across, covering a small portion of the diameter of the Milky Way, which is roughly 100,000 light-years across.

The two nebulae are both massive star-making factories, marked by giant bubbles that were blown into surrounding dust by radiation and winds from the stars. These stars are less than a few million of years old, youngsters in comparison to stars like our Sun, which is nearly 5 billion years old.

Taken in my back garden, Bortal 7, no guiding.

Gear used:
Radian Raptor 61 refractor telescope
SkyGuider Pro
Radian Mount
ZWOASI2600MC
Optolong l-Pro
Apps used:
Sharpcap
Astro Pixel Processor
Image specifications:
Chip temperature: -15°C
150 subs x 60 seconds
g/250 Plus dark and light frames