The Heart and Soul
Image Details:
The Heart and Soul nebulae are a popular pair of targets located in Cassiopeia best seen (though this is a challenge) and photographed during early Autumn. They are both located around 7,500 l.y. away and are also both about 170 l.y. wide, equating to an area in the sky equivalent to about 4 times the width of our Full Moon in apparent size.
These objects were an imaging goal of mine for a very long time, and it was only through implementing automation features to my equipment that I was able to capture it here as a 4 panel mosaic / panorama over several nights. It should have been possible to capture only 3 panels, but slight misalignments necessitated a fourth to prevent excessive cropping.
Equipment:
Astrotech AT72ED & 0.8X Reducer/Flattener (344mm Focal Length, F/4.8)
Astromodified Canon T3i
Celestron CG5-GT
Autoguiding: Orion 50mm Guidescope + ZWO ASI224MC
Exposures:
One-Shot Color with CLS-CCD LP Filter: 208 x 600” (Total: 34h 40m)
Hydrogen-Alpha 12nm: 166 x 600” (Total: 27h 40m)
Misc Details:
Capture Software: AstrophotographyTool, PHD2 (guiding), Pegasus Powerbox (dew heater control, power management)
Processing Software: PixInsight
Taken from: Wichita, KS, Bortle 4
Capture Dates: 21-22, 25-26 November, 7-9 December, 2017