Center of Heart Nebula

in Cassiopeia (IC 1805, Mel 15)

Center of Heart Nebula
Éder Iván

Situated 7500 light years away in the ‘W’-shaped constellation of Cassiopeia, the Heart Nebula is a vast region of glowing gas, energized by a cluster of young stars at its centre. The image depicts the central region, where dust clouds are being eroded and moulded into rugged shapes by the searing cosmic radiation

Cosmic clouds form fantastic shapes in the central regions of emission nebula IC 1805. The clouds are sculpted by stellar winds and radiation from massive hot stars in the nebula's newborn star cluster, Melotte 15. About 1.5 million years young, the cluster stars are toward the right in this colorful skyscape, along with dark dust clouds in silhouette against glowing atomic gas. A composite of narrowband and broadband telescopic images, the view spans about 30 light-years and includes emission from ionized hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen atoms mapped to green, red, and blue hues in the popular Hubble Palette. Wider field images reveal that IC 1805's simpler, overall outline suggests its popular name - The Heart Nebula. IC 1805 is located about 7,500 light years away toward the boastful constellation Cassiopeia.

This image was the winner of the ASA Astrophotography Competition 2014 international competition.
NASA APOD at 2014.10.18. Link

Previous images of the Heart Nebula:

Image details

Instrument:
300/1200 Newton, 3" Wynne (1130mm effective focal length)
Camera:
QSI 683 WSG-8, modified Canon EOS 5DmkII (stars and their colors)
Mount:
Fornax 51 + Boxdörfer DynoStar
Guiding:
Off axis, Lacerta-MGen autoguider + Mgen2Maxim
Exposure time, filters:
10x30m Ha, 6x10m SII, 6x10m OIII (7 hours total)
Location, date:
Ágasvár, (Mount Matra), Hungary; 2013.10.05.
Observing conditions:
Transparency: 7/10, Seeing: 6/10, Temperature: -4°C
Processing:
ImagesPlus, Registar, Pixinsight LE, Photoshop

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