Soul Nebula Hubble Palette Here is The Soul Nebula, close neighbor to The Heart Nebula. Captured over 5 nights and once again this is a Hubble Palette (HST) version with SII filter assigned to Red, H-Alpha filter assigned to Green and OIII filter assigned to blue channel, you may notice in the H-Alpha version I used 10 x 30 min H-Alpha sub exposures as opposed to this version I used substantially more. Total Exposure time 20 hours Date of Shoot September 12th, 13th, 15th, 16th and 17th 2012 All exposures unbinned H-Alpha 3nm 16 x 30 min OIII 8.5 nm 12 x 30 min SII 8 nm 12 x 30 min QHY9M monochrome CCD cooled to -30C Thomas M. Back TMB 92SS F5.5 APO Refractor Paramount GT-1100S German Equatorial Mount (with MKS 4000) Image Aquisition Maxim DL Stacking and Calibrating: CCDStack Registration of images in Registar Post Processing Photoshop CS5 7000 light-years distant in the constellation of Cassiopeia lies the emission nebula colloquially known as the "Heart and Soul". The gasses (mostly hydrogen) that comprise the nebula are being ionized by the stars within the region and as a result, the gasses 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. description written by Adam Stirek