Imaging telescopes or lenses: Astro-Physics 130 EDFGT
Imaging cameras: SBIG STT-8300M
Mounts: Astro-Physics Mach1GTO
Guiding telescopes or lenses: Astro-Physics 130 EDFGT
Focal reducers: Astro-Physics AP 2.7" Prime Focus Field Flattener 67PF462
Software: Software Bisque TheSkyX Professional · SBIG CCDOps · Adobe Photoshop 6 CS · PixInsight
Filters: Baader H-alpha 36mm · Baader OIII 36mm · Baader SII 36mm
Dates:Sept. 24, 2015 , Sept. 25, 2015 , Sept. 26, 2015
Frames:
Baader H-alpha 36mm: 19x1800" -20C bin 1x1
Baader OIII 36mm: 11x1800" -20C bin 1x1
Baader SII 36mm: 13x1800" -20C bin 1x1
Integration: 21.5 hours
Darks: ~24
Bias: ~125
Avg. Moon age: 11.74 days
Avg. Moon phase: 89.24%
Bortle Dark-Sky Scale: 7.00
Astrometry.net job: 838164
RA center: 2h 33' 0"
DEC center: +61° 29' 42"
Pixel scale: 0.811 arcsec/pixel
Orientation: 87.941 degrees
Field radius: 0.708 degrees
Resolution: 5135x3627
Locations: Home Yard, Valley Center, California, United States
The star cluster at the heart of the Heart Nebula contains several stars up to 50 times the mass of the Earth's sun. Only about 1.5 million years old, the large bright stars, along with many other smaller stars, emit intense radiation that excites the surrounding gas and dust clouds, causing them to glow brightly in the H-alpha band creating an image of beautiful, intricate forms.
This image maps SII to red, Ha to green and OIII to blue.
The original image had bad transition zones between stacks where my position between nights and across the meridian were not perfect, so it was cropped a bit.
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