The Heart Nebula, IC 1805, lies some 7500 light years away from Earth and is located in the constellation Cassiopeia. This is an emission nebula showing glowing gas and darker dust lanes. The nebula is formed by plasma of ionized hydrogen and free electrons. The very brightest part of this nebula (the knot at the bottom right) is separately classified as NGC 896 and IC1795, The Fishhead Nebula.
The nebula’s intense red output is 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.
Technical info:
TS 80mm f6 APO triplet refractor
ZWO ASI 071 MC PRO – temp: -5c – gain 90
TS 0,79 reducer
Optolong L-eNhance dualband filter ( Ha-OIII)
IDAS LPS-LP2 filter (RGB)
iOPTRON CEM25P mount
ASIAIR Pro
Exposure – L-eNhance (Ha-OIII) (140x180sec) ~ 7 hours
Exposure – RGB 59x 120 sec ~2hours
Total exposure ~9 hours
Processed with Astro Pixel Processor and PS CS5