Heart Nebula

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"The Heart Nebula, IC 1805, Sharpless 2-190, lies some 7500 light years away from Earth and is located in the Perseus Arm of the Galaxy in the constellation Cassiopeia. This is an emission nebula showing glowing ionized hydrogen gas and darker dust lanes.

The very brightest part of this nebula (the knot at the western edge) is separately classified as NGC 896, because it was the first part of this nebula to be discovered.

The nebula's intense red output and its configuration are driven by the radiation emanating from a small group of stars near the nebula's center. This open cluster of stars known as Melotte 15 contains a few bright stars nearly 50 times the mass of our Sun, and many more dim stars that are only a fraction of our Sun's mass."
 

Date :  December 2014
Location : Arizona Sky Village, Portal, Arizona

Equipment used :
 Lens or telescope -- AP 130 EDF with 0.75 focal reducer
 Mount -- AP 1200
 Camera -- QSI 583wsg with Lodestar guider

Acquistion Software : ACP, MaxIm DL, Focusmax
Processing Software : PixInsight, Photoshop

Exposure Detail : L HaRGB combine    Total hours 10