HEART NEBULA

Heart Nebula

In the vast expanse of space,
A beauty shines with grace.
The Heart Nebula, a sight to see,
A symbol of love and Eternity.
Its red and pink hues, so bright,
A cosmic fire, burning light.
It's a reminder,
Of the love for the cosmos we share,
A feeling that's beyond compare.
So let's gaze up at the stars,
And let our love go far.
7500 light years kind of far.
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Also known as IC1805, is an emission Nebula, The nebula's intense red output and its morphology 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 the Sun, and many more dim stars that are only a fraction of the Sun's mass.

The Heart Nebula is also made up of ionized oxygen and sulfur gasses, responsible for the rich blue and orange color seen in narrowband images. The nebula's shape is driven by stellar winds from the hot stars in its core. The nebula also spans almost 2 degrees in the sky, covering an area four times the full moon's diameter.

21h20 min total integration time
Sharpstar 61 EDPH II + 0.8 reducer | 274mm @f4.5
ASI183MC PRO dedicated astrocamera
AM5 Mount
SVBONY duo band 7nm
SVBONY 30mm f4 Guide Scope
ASI120MM mini guide camera with red filter
ASIAir mini
Bortle 4-5

Software: DeepSkyStacker > Siril > Veralux Alchemy > Starnet > VeraLux HMS > Graxpert > Cosmic Clarity > Photoshop

Faux SHO done using VeraLux Alchemy and VeraLux HMS

These crops shows how many interesting features we can see inside this Nebula. Click to see 1:1 pixel scale.

Here is a progression through the years, Thats one of my favorite targets and I havent realized how many tries I got on it until now, I guess because it was so though to capture due to Orlando’s light pollution sky dome was to the North it was really hard for me to do a good job on it. I definitely learned a lot tryign to improve this target. A lot has changed over these years from better gear to better softwares, from DSLRs to astro camera, from photoshop stretching to a full suit of astro dedicated softwares like Siril, Cosmic Clarity, VeraLux etc…