The Heart Nebula, or IC 1805, is an Emission Nebula based in the Cassiopeia constellation in the Perseus arm of our galaxy and was first Discovered by William Herschel in 1787. Although this could be up for some debate regarding the location of the nebula as it does sit between three constellations.
This is an emission Nebula with an open cluster in the central part of the nebula itself which is known as Collinder 26. This cluster has some stars which are 50 times the mass of our sun and many more which are below average brightness compared to our sun. |
This Object has multiple catalogue objects identifying selected parts of the Nebula including the brighter edges, NGC 896 as an example. The Heart Nebula is connected to the Fish Head Nebula (IC 1795) which isn’t pictured here.
The open cluster is responsible for the nebula’s emission and morphology due to the radiation emitted from the open cluster. The nebula is made up of ionised Oxygen (OIII) and Sulphur (SII) as well as the usual Hydrogen, which gives the blue (OIII) and orange (SII) colours. But due to the use of a dual band filter in this instance, the SII has been overlooked in this picture. But some could argue the SII data gets mixed in with the Ha data and is washed out by the overwhelming colours of Ha.
This object was taken over one night (3 hours 50 mins total) and processed with Pixinsight software (the usual) but this particular picture will be the last picture from my 72ed scope! My new scope is arriving soon and will (hopefully) take over the small 72ed.
The open cluster is responsible for the nebula’s emission and morphology due to the radiation emitted from the open cluster. The nebula is made up of ionised Oxygen (OIII) and Sulphur (SII) as well as the usual Hydrogen, which gives the blue (OIII) and orange (SII) colours. But due to the use of a dual band filter in this instance, the SII has been overlooked in this picture. But some could argue the SII data gets mixed in with the Ha data and is washed out by the overwhelming colours of Ha.
This object was taken over one night (3 hours 50 mins total) and processed with Pixinsight software (the usual) but this particular picture will be the last picture from my 72ed scope! My new scope is arriving soon and will (hopefully) take over the small 72ed.
As with many objects I take, nebulas especially, I look at several things when collecting the data. Time of year, how much time I have, equipment used, how big is the object, will it fit in one shot and will one night be enough? But I seem to always use 10-minute exposures, it is sort of the sweet spot for the equipment I use and the results I get (which speak for themselves). I have thought about taking longer exposures and comparing them to see if there was any reason to extend the exposure time, as the 5 to 10-minute exposure times did show some obvious differences. But the time it takes to take the dark calibration frames is near 8 hours! (Roughly 30 darks) which would take up a day to do (in the grand scheme of things, it is not a major thing, as this can be done at any time)
Scope - Skywatcher 72ed
Mount - Skywatcher eq5 goto
Guide scope – ZWO 30mm
Guide Camera – ZWO Asi 120mm mini
Control box – ZWO ASIAIR Pro
Filter – Optolong L-eXtreme 1.25"
Filter drawer next to the camera sensor
Fox Halo 96k power bank
Dew heaters with their own power banks on both guide scope and camera
Darks - 25
Flat - 100
Bias - 60
lights - 24x600sec
All the data was stacked with DeepSkyStacker and Processed in Pixinsight. (Other software is available which is free and will is linked in the information tab)
With a recent upgrade to my equipment, I've been testing the capability of the new equipment on the Heart Nebula. The new picture below is only one hour of exposure time at 2 minutes per exposure. The only thing I never did was reverse the image due to the scope's lens orientation.
I've not pushed the data too hard in this picture but compared with the 4-hour exposure, there is a slight difference in detail. My processing style was the same as previously and minimal time was spent on post-processing. I think the hour exposure with the RASA with equivalent to about 5 hours with my old Skywatcher 72ed setup.
A review and comparison are in the review section.
A review and comparison are in the review section.
RASA 8 update.
Below is the most recent picture of the Heart Nebula. This was merely a test for the new RASA replacement which has finally happened. This is an hour of total exposure at 60-sec sub-exposures. There is a side-by-side comparison between the old RASA and the new RASA.
Furthermore, The glass element on the RASA has been removed in line with Starizona's guidelines with the filter drawer, which used to recommend keeping the glass in place, which has been adjusted and reversed to recommend removing the glass when using the RASA.
Furthermore, The glass element on the RASA has been removed in line with Starizona's guidelines with the filter drawer, which used to recommend keeping the glass in place, which has been adjusted and reversed to recommend removing the glass when using the RASA.