Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cassiopeia (Cas)  ·  Contains:  IC 1795  ·  IC 1805  ·  NGC 896  ·  Sh2-190
Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Heart Nebula (IC 1805, Sh2-190) and WeBo 1 (PN G135.6+01.0), Gary Lopez
Powered byPixInsight

Heart Nebula (IC 1805, Sh2-190) and WeBo 1 (PN G135.6+01.0)

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Heart Nebula (IC 1805, Sh2-190) and WeBo 1 (PN G135.6+01.0), Gary Lopez
Powered byPixInsight

Heart Nebula (IC 1805, Sh2-190) and WeBo 1 (PN G135.6+01.0)

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

Beating in the body of the mythical queen of Aethiopia, Cassiopeia, is the Heart Nebula. Nearly 200 light-years across and 7,500 light-years from Earth, this bright emission nebula spans about 2 degrees of the night sky, an area about four times the diameter of the full Moon. The young, massive star cluster at the center of the Heart energize the surrounding gases dominated by hydrogen, with lesser measures of oxygen and sulfur.

As a bonus in this project, the planetary nebula, WeBo 1, is also present beneath the Heart in the bottom right of the frame. It is a peculiar object with a young barium star surrounded by a ring-like planetary nebula.

The weather has been exceptionally clear and dry here in northern California for the last few weeks, giving me lots of opportunity to capture the data for this project. To visualize the intricate structures of this nebula I acquired about 30 hours of data, emphasizing the very strong hydrogen signal (nearly 20 hours). In this rendition I have used a standard HST palette which, for my taste, reveals the beauty of this spectacular nebula.

Comments