Some babies are cuter from a distance!

This is the face of the Soul Nebula. The features here are most often are labeled as IC1871. It used to be called the Embryo nebula. And some folks think the nebula looks more like a pig. 

But I like "Soul" better.

Guess what—Soul is coincidently right next to the Heart nebula.

A wide shot is one of my favorites from last year ( https://www.astrobin.com/0aioxp/B/?nc=&nce= ). It shows both the Heart and Soul nebulas. It's probably a lot clearer in this wider pic why they are so named. I had to shoot each nebula separately and then merge them together, as both would not fit within the view of my wider scope. The merge is accurate, though. I matched the overlapping stars.

In tonights closer image check out the column of gas that makes up Soul's mouth. The dark stuff floating in front that, from a distance, looks a little like an eye socket. And there's that darker round patch that could be his ear.

I like that this little dude is sticking his tongue out. Well, I say "little;" the nebula is actually thousands of times wider than our entire solar system.

This space object is called an emission nebula. That's because the stars formed in the cloud make the hydrogen glow orange with their solar radiation. The cloud might have originally been formed by an exploding star a long time ago.

Soul is found near the Cassiopeia constellation in the north sky. It's about 7500 light years away.

It was terrific to get out tonight. January was not kind to Hoosier astronomers with its endless cloud cover.

It's unrealistic to ascribe some kind of spiritual message to these galactic features, but it's images like this that give me pause to think about how wonderful the universe is. Even if we fade away and use up this blue marble we're on, it will have been a wonderful journey while it lasted.

Maybe I'm waxing philosophical because this is being written while listening to Marcin Wasilewski Trio play out an etherial jazz tune called Diamonds And Pearls. Looking at these images with a song like this makes everything OK.

Image tech info for wide shot: 
https://www.astrobin.com/0aioxp/B/?nc=&nce=