The Soul Nebula (Westerhout 5, Sharpless 2-199, LBN 667, IC1848)It is an emission nebula located in the constellation Cassiopeia approximately 7,500 light-years from Earth. The nebula is quite large and has a diameter of about 300 light years and its size in the sky is about 40' x 10'.
**Size comparison made in Stellarium app**
Like the Orion Nebula, the Soul Nebula is a star-forming region. Young massive stars with a very strong solar wind blow up the nebula, giving it a characteristic shape (to me, the nebula reminds me of the Estus Flask from the Dark Souls game series). The fingers/pillars protruding from the nebula are larger concentrations of mass where we can observe newly born stars in the deep infrared.
**Star-forming region in H-alpha**
This is my first deep sky photo taken in cooperation with Jakob Sahner with whom we have a remote observatory in Spain at the e-EyE observatory.
The photo is actually a small section of a larger mosaic available soon.
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