Heart and Soul

Astronomy Winner of the 2024 Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition. Found over 7000 light years away, the Heart and Soul are two breathtaking nebulae in the Cassiopeia constellation. The nebulae are immense regions of star formation in our galaxy — my picture shows an area of the sky that is nine full Moons across. To capture their intricate details, I photographed the faint nebulae for nearly 14 hours over three nights in fall 2023, from the city skies of the Chicago suburbs. Ionized gas in the Heart and Soul glows in vivid colors, shown here in the HOO color palette, where hydrogen is mapped in red and oxygen appears as blues and greens. I was able to overcome the extreme light pollution of city skies, a growing challenge that is detrimental to both stargazing and astrophotography, by using a special filter which only allows certain wavelengths of light to pass through.

• Moab Entrada Bright Rag Paper
• 290gsm, 100% cotton
• Award-winning, museum grade paper
• Textured matte finish
• Archival: acid and lignin-free paper
• High-resolution, large format inkjet printing
• Sizing: White borders do not change size of the print