Westerhout 5, also known as Soul Nebula, is an hydrogen region located in constellation Cassiopea, nearby other famous objects like the Heart Nebula and the Double Cluster. Its spans for about 100 light years and it is a nursery of stars, which have a few millions year old – young, compared with our 5 billion year Sun. These young stars are the large blue one and are clustered within the nebula (IC 1848, CR 34, 632 and 634). The highly energetic starts generate strong stellar wind, which push the nebula away, carving it out and creating the inward pillars we see in the photo which, due to its higher density, are also star forming regions.
The Soul Nebula shape derives from the bridge it exists between the two “bubbles” of gas. It resemblance to a fetus is the reason for also being called Embryo Nebula.
Technical details as follows:
Ha: 87 x 300” 2023.11.20 | 2023.11.21 | 2023.11.22 | 2023.11.24 |
Oiii: 119 x 300” 2023.11.21 | 2023.11.22
Sii: 107 x 300” 2023.11.23 | 2023.11.24
RED: 30 x 30′ 2023.11.22
GREEN: 30 x 30′ 2023.11.22
BLUE: 30 x 30′ 2023.11.22
Total: 27h35
SW EQ6-R Pro | TS Optics Triplet APO 800/115 | TS Optics TSFLAT2 0.79x | QHYCCD 268M | Optolong LRGB | RBFocus Gaius-S | RBFocus Myrrdin 2.3