The Heart Nebula (IC 1805) is a nebula in the Milky Way, ~7500 light years away in the constellation Cassiopeia. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1787. It is an emission nebula (mainly Hydrogen-Alpha plus some Oxygen – III) with obvious dust lanes. Often it is imaged with a neighboring target, the Soul Nebula. The center of the Heart Nebula has a number of very bright stars which are emitting such powerful radiation that they illuminate this whole region such that it is visible from the Earth. The apparent size of the nebula is roughly 2 degrees by 2 degrees, making it many times larger than the Earth’s Moon (1/2 degree in diameter).
The object is easily observed in our northern skies (Teeples observatory is at 45 North) at a declination of 61 degrees north. I suspect it is easy to photograph but difficult to observe visually because the light is spread out over a large area. Most images that you will see of this object are all red in colour. The blue seen here was teased out using a special filter for two nearby Oxygen-III spectral lines (495.9nm and 500.7nm). This image was captured over several nights by a colour RGB camera plus narrow-band Hydrogen Alpha and Oxygen – III imaging.
As of this date, October 9, 2022, I consider this to be my finest image in astrophotography. The only problem I see is that the stars are slightly elongated, particularly at the edges. This is primarily due to incorrect backspacing for the mono camera setup. The image is cropped to a square to chop off the worst stars and because the target fits well in a square image.
Image captured on August 27, September 1 and September 29, 2022. Telescope RASA11, Cameras ZWO ASI6200 MC and MM. H-Alpha and Oxygen – III filters used with the Mono camera.
Comments