Photographing The Soul Nebula
The Soul Nebula (Westerhout 5, Sharpless 2-199, LBN 667) is a large emission nebula and star-forming region located in the constellation Cassiopeia. It is also widely known as IC 1848, although that designation technically refers to an open star cluster embedded within the larger nebula complex.
This nebula is often photographed with its nearest neighbor, the Heart Nebula (IC 1805), creating the popular Heart and Soul Nebula composition. Its large apparent size makes it a fantastic deep-sky astrophotography target using a camera lens or a short-focal-length telescope.
Below is an image I captured using a dedicated astrophotography camera and narrowband filters. The image includes 8 hours of total exposure time from my light-polluted backyard (Bortle Class 6) in the city.
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The Soul Nebula in SHO (Hubble Palette). 8 Hours Total Exposure.
Related Article: My Astrophotography Equipment
The Soul Nebula (IC 1848, Westerhout 5)
- Common name: The Soul Nebula or Embryo Nebula
- Nebula designations: Westerhout 5 (W5), Sharpless 2-199, LBN 667
- Commonly used designation: IC 1848
- Constellation: Cassiopeia
- Approximate coordinates: RA 02h 51m, Dec +60°25′ (J2000, for the IC 1848 cluster)
- Apparent size: Approximately 150′ × 75′ for the wider W5 complex
- Distance: Approximately 6,500 light-years
- Object type: Emission nebula, H II region, and star-forming complex
Is the Soul Nebula visible to the naked eye?
No. A magnitude of 6.5 is sometimes listed for IC 1848, but that value refers to the embedded open cluster rather than the entire diffuse nebula. The Soul Nebula has low surface brightness and is primarily an imaging target. Under dark skies, a telescope and an appropriate nebula filter may reveal portions of it visually, but it does not look like a bright photographic exposure through the eyepiece.
The Soul Nebula lies approximately 6,500 light-years from Earth in the Perseus spiral arm of our Milky Way Galaxy. NASA describes the cloud of dust and gas as more than 150 light-years across.
The IC 1848 naming can be confusing. Strictly speaking, IC 1848 is the young open cluster inside the nebula, while W5, Sharpless 2-199, and LBN 667 identify the surrounding emission region. In everyday astrophotography, however, IC 1848 is routinely used as the name for the entire Soul Nebula.
The Heart and Soul Nebula
The Soul Nebula is the eastern neighbor of IC 1805, the Heart Nebula. The two large emission regions appear close together from our perspective and are often photographed as a single wide-field composition known as the Heart and Soul Nebula.
The wide-field image shown below was captured from my backyard using a wide-field refractor telescope and a Canon EOS Ra camera.
The Heart and Soul Nebulae in Cassiopeia.
The nebula at the bottom is the Heart Nebula. A beautiful deep-sky object in its own right, it is designated IC 1805 and named after its resemblance to a human heart. On top is the Soul Nebula, also known as the Embryo Nebula, W5, or IC 1848.
Heart Nebula vs. Soul Nebula
The Heart Nebula has a more symmetrical outline with a bright central cluster, Melotte 15. The Soul Nebula looks more fragmented, with cavities, bright rims, and dark lanes that create its embryo-like shape. A focal length near 135mm can frame both objects with many camera sensors, while 250–500mm is better for concentrating on the Soul Nebula itself. Always confirm the framing with a field-of-view calculator because sensor size changes the result.
An Emission Nebula and Star-Forming Region
The Soul Nebula is an emission nebula with young open star clusters embedded within it. It is a vast star-forming region containing clouds of dust and gas ionized by ultraviolet radiation from nearby hot, young stars.
Unlike our Sun (a main-sequence G-type star about 4.6 billion years old), the stars in this region are extremely young. NASA estimates that the IC 1848 cluster formed about one million years ago.
Small emission structures such as IC 1871 can be isolated within the larger Soul Nebula complex and are beautiful when photographed with more magnification. The following image was captured through a Sky-Watcher Esprit 150 refractor telescope in my backyard to isolate this region.
IC 1871 inside the Soul Nebula.
The Soul Nebula gets much of its shape from stellar winds and intense ultraviolet radiation produced by its young stars. These forces excavate cavities in the surrounding cloud. Denser material erodes more slowly, leaving pillars of dust and gas that point toward the central cluster. Some of these pillars are approximately 10 light-years tall, and new stars are forming near their tips.
Where Is the Soul Nebula Located?
The Soul Nebula is located in the northern hemisphere constellation Cassiopeia. To be more specific, you’ll find it between the constellations Cassiopeia and Perseus.
From our perspective on Earth, it is located close to the nearby Double Cluster in Perseus.
In the photo below, you can see how the Heart and Soul Nebulae sit below the recognizable “W” asterism of Cassiopeia in the night sky.
The location of the Soul Nebula in Cassiopeia.
The best time to observe and photograph the Soul Nebula in the Northern Hemisphere is in the fall.
The Heart and Soul Nebulae rise high into the sky together from late September through November. The following star chart shows where to find the Soul Nebula.
I find it easiest to first locate the recognizable constellation, Cassiopeia. Then look downwards towards the Double Cluster in Perseus.
You’ll find the Soul Nebula to the northwest of Perseus, between the 2 constellations.
In the fall (in the Northern Hemisphere), this emission nebula rises high into the sky. From my latitude, I can begin my night with the telescope pointed in a northeast direction.
Then, I can track the Soul Nebula on my equatorial telescope mount for hours before having to perform a manual meridian flip.
When it comes to long-exposure astrophotography projects, I often choose to photograph objects rising in the east.
Best night to photograph the Soul Nebula
Choose a clear, moonless night with good transparency. Because the Soul Nebula is a large, faint emission target, haze and bright moonlight can wash out its weakest structures. Narrowband or dual-band filters make the target much more practical from a light-polluted backyard, although the Moon can still create gradients and reduce contrast.
Which Telescope Should You Use?
The refractor telescope I used to capture my full image of the Soul Nebula (Apertura 75Q) has a focal length of 400mm, which is considered wide-field. This is ideal for photographing large deep-sky objects such as the Heart and Soul Nebulae.
Any telescope with a shorter focal length of 250–500mm (usually, a compact refractor) should be able to capture the entire Soul Nebula in a single shot.
For a massive field of view containing the Heart and Soul Nebulae, consider using a camera lens like the Rokinon 135mm F/2.
| Field of View | Typical Focal Length | Best Use |
|---|---|---|
| Very wide | 100–200mm | Heart and Soul together with surrounding Milky Way |
| Wide | 250–350mm | Entire Soul Nebula or a tighter two-nebula composition |
| Closer detail | 400–700mm | Soul Nebula structure, depending on camera sensor size |
How much telescope aperture do you need?
Aperture is not the deciding factor for this target. Framing, focal ratio, tracking accuracy, camera sensitivity, and total exposure time matter more. A small 60–80mm refractor can produce an excellent Soul Nebula image. In fact, a larger telescope may make the target harder to frame because of its longer focal length.
With a full-frame camera sensor, I can capture the Heart and Soul Nebulae region in its entirety. The framing of these objects will not only depend on the focal length (magnification) of your telescope but also the size of your camera sensor. I use this tool to calculate the field of view I can expect on any given target in the night sky.
I’ve also used my William Optics Z73 refractor telescope to photograph the Soul Nebula using my DSLR camera. The focal length of this refractor is 430mm, which means that I can isolate the Soul Nebula itself from the nearby Heart Nebula.
I have had great success photographing the Soul Nebula using my full-spectrum modified Canon EOS Rebel T3i DSLR with this telescope (shown below).
A William Optics Z73 Doublet Apochromatic Refractor with a DSLR Camera attached.
Camera Settings and Filters for the Soul Nebula
There is no single best exposure setting for the Soul Nebula because sky brightness, focal ratio, camera read noise, tracking, and filter bandwidth all affect the result. As a practical starting point, try 2–5-minute sub-exposures with a well-tracked DSLR, mirrorless camera, or cooled astronomy camera. DSLR users can begin around ISO 800 or 1600, while dedicated astronomy camera users can start near the manufacturer’s recommended unity-gain setting.
Check that the brightest stars are not badly clipped and that your mount is producing consistently round stars. If guiding or sky glow limits your exposures, shorter sub-exposures are completely fine. Total integration time and clean calibration usually matter more than forcing each individual exposure to be longer.
Which filter works best?
Hydrogen-alpha is the strongest and most useful emission signal in the Soul Nebula. A dual-band H-alpha/OIII filter is a practical choice for a one-shot-color camera under city skies. A monochrome camera with H-alpha, OIII, and SII filters gives you the most control and allows an SHO Hubble Palette image. For an unmodified DSLR, the nebula is still possible, but the camera records much less deep-red H-alpha light and will generally need more total exposure time.
Astrophotography Image Processing
Capturing images of space with your camera and telescope is only one-half of the astrophotography experience. Processing the images to reveal faint structures, detail, and color is the other.
After collecting enough data to create a healthy signal-to-noise ratio, you can stretch each color channel to reveal the details of your subject and enhance the color. For the Soul Nebula, I pay close attention to the faint outer hydrogen signal and the dark lanes surrounding the brighter structures.
Related Article: Choosing Astrophotography Image Processing Software
The stacking process involves integrating several hours of exposures and using calibration frames such as dark frames, bias frames, and flat frames to correct the image. I use DeepSkyStacker to integrate and calibrate my images before further processing.
Once the intermediate file is ready, I bring the image into Adobe Photoshop for post-processing. PixInsight and Siril can also calibrate, stack, and process emission-nebula data, but I prefer to keep my workflow grounded in the tools I actually use.
Processing the Soul Nebula in SHO
For the Hubble Palette image at the top of this article, sulfur-II data is mapped to red, hydrogen-alpha to green, and oxygen-III to blue. The channels rarely arrive with equal strength—H-alpha is usually dominant—so I balance them carefully before increasing contrast and saturation. A gentle magenta-star correction can also help, but pushing it too far can create unnatural halos.
StarNet++ is useful for separating the stars from the nebula. This makes it easier to enhance the dust and gas without disrupting the brightness, color balance, and shape of the stars.
Topaz Labs DeNoise AI can reduce noise, but it should be used carefully. I find it useful to make a detailed selection before applying noise reduction so the brightest structures and small stars do not become overly smooth.
You can learn how I use these image-processing tools to create astrophotography images like the ones in this article in my premium astrophotography image processing guide.
If you would like to try processing my color data on this subject, you can do so here.
