The Heart Nebula
Target
Name: Heart Nebula
Designations: NGC 896, Sharpless 2-190, IC 1805
Distance: 7,500 ly
Equipment
Camera: ASI2600MM Pro
Telescope: Askar 80 PHQ
Filters: Optolong 3nm SII, H-Alpha, and OIII filter set
Total Exposure Time: 25h 5m
Software: PixInsight, RC Astro Blur/Noise/StarXTerminator Plugins
There’s a lot to talk about when looking at the Heart Nebula and the surrounding region. This emission nebula is located about 7,500 lightyears from Earth in the Perseus arm of our galaxy. In addition to the incredibly vibrant colors, there are some lovely dark structures as well. The brightness in the central region is caused by radiation from an open cluster known as Melotte 15. The bright region in the top left is separately classified as the Fish Head Nebula and is discussed below.
This false-color image was created using over 300 individual 5 minute exposures taken over four nights from my home in Colorado. The images were taken using filters that only allow very specific wavelengths of light to hit the camera sensor. Those exposures are then combined to create this final image.
Fish Head Nebula
A nice side effect of imaging the Heart Nebula is that it’s very easy to include the small Fish Head Nebula in the image. This is a star forming region and contains many young, bright stars.