The Heart Nebula (IC 1805), an Emission Nebula, 7500 light years away, in the constellation Cassiopeia which shows glowing ionized hydrogen and Oxygen gases and darker dust lanes. Imaged on Tuesday and Wednesday nights as icicles were forming on my nose . I used my wide 8″ RASA telescope with hydrogen alpha filter, Oxygen III and Sulphur II narrowband filters attached to my camera, and a total exposure time of four hours to bring out the detail within the nebula. I added the three light waves to the RGB channels and the result is this gorgeous Hubble palette image.
The heart shape is clearly recognisable and indeed the shape and strong visible hydrogen gas and dust is driven by the radiation, which is emanating from a small group of stars near the nebula’s centre. This open cluster of stars contains a few bright stars nearly 50 times the mass of our own sun.
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