IC 1848

IC 1848 is the designation of a young star cluster and the emission nebula surrounding it, which are located in eastern Cassiopeia. It is one of the "Double Nebulae", the other one being IC 1805, so-called because of their proximity to to NGC 884 and NGC 869, the Double Cluster in Perseus. Some amateurs call IC 1848 also the "Soul Nebula", the corresponding "Heart" being IC 1805. The star cluster is surrounded by hydrogen, which is excited by UV light from the young and hot stars and therefore glows mainly in the red light of the Hα emission line.

I once decided on calling IC 1848 the "Smiling Fox Nebula", as the right part (the ring) shows cleary ears, two holes for the eyes, mouth, and a snout, just like a fox'es face out of some comics book, looking to the right and a bit towards us. He might even be smoking... ☺

Milky Way Vista - Perseus to Cassiopeia, telelens photograph.

Exposure Data

Instrument: 4.9" f/3.8 Wright-Newtonian
F/stop: 3.8
Exposure: 8 x 10 min / 7 x 10 min + 2 x 2 min
Camera: Nikon D70 with Baader UV-IR-Cut-Filter / Canon 350D with Baader UV-IR-Cut-Filter
Sensitivity: ISO 1600 / ISO 800
Date: December 10, 2004 / November 27, 2006
Exposure start: 19:00 MEZ / 23:50 MEZ
Location: Ebenwaldhöhe, Lower Austria / Brunnalm (Veitsch), Styria
Conditions: Visual limiting magnitude 6.2 mag, seeing 3-4/10, Temperature +0.5°C, no wind, low humidity / 6.4 mag, Seeing 4-5/10, Temperature +1°C, no wind, high humidity
Autoguider: Meade Pictor 216 XT, max. error: 2" (RA) / 2" (Dec)
Enhancement: Basic data reduction, combine, background flattening, logarithmic curves, color correction, local contrast enhancement, star size reduction, dynamic range extension, noise filtering, crop
Notes: Interesting combination of Nikon D70 and Canon 350D images: The D70 images were used for faint nebula detail & depth, the 350D images for enhanced resolution and contrast within the brighter nebulosity and for the stars. The final image was cropped to the smaller Canon format.