Heart and Soul Nebla

This is a 2 hour exposure of the Heart and Soul Nebula, with the double cluster. The Heart and Soul Nebula is located about 7500 light years away and each is about 200 light years in diameter. The double cluster is also about 7500 light years away from earth. The double cluster is fairly bright and can be seen without aid at a dark sky. In a more light polluted sky, this can be seen with binoculars. 
Picture
Final Cropped Photo
Picture
Heart and Soul Nebula Labelled
Details of How the shot was Taken
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Gear:
  • Olympus OMD EM-5 Micro 4/3 camera 
  • Skywatcher Star Adventurer (Unguided)
  • Olympus 40-150mm F2.8 lens
  • Home made dew heater
    • Made with nichrome wire wrapped in duct tape, which is powdered by a lipo battery 
​Acquisition & Environment:
  • 80x1.5 minute exposures (2 hours)
  • 1600 iso @ 90mm (180 equivalent) F3.5
  • 55 Flat Frames
  • 34 Dark Frames
  • 49 Bias Frames
  • Taken: September 8, 2018
Processing:
  • Images processed in DeepSkyStacker
    • 2x Drizzle Stack
    • Brought Saturation to 17 and match all rgb levels
  • Photoshop Adjustments:
    • Cropped to remove stacking errors and center the cluster in the frame
    • Adjust Levels to bring Histogram to the front and bring out more nebulosity
    • Used RC-Astro's Gradient xterminator to remove the gradient the flats couldn't fix
    • Adjust Colour balance to adjust background colour to be neutral
    • Used Deep Sky Colours HLVG tool to remove any unnecessary greens in the photo
    • Used Astronomy tools to bring out local contrast and make stars smaller
      • Enhance DSO and Reduce Stars tool was used
    • Increased the Saturation 
    • Exported into jpeg
Picture
The Raw Image From the Camera