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IC 1805 - The Heart Nebula in Cassiopeia
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Copyright 2007 Hap Griffin
IC 1805 is known as the "Heart Nebula" because of its resemblance to its namesake (although "upside down in this north = up presentation). It is one of several giant star-forming regions of hydrogen clouds in the Perseus arm of our galaxy. A very young (only 1.5 million years old) star cluster known as Melotte 15 lies 50 light years in front of the nebula and illuminates it.
IC 1805 lies at a distance of 7500 light years.
Date/Location: September
8, 2007 Griffin/Hunter II Observatory Bethune, SC
Instrument: Canon 350D (modified IR filtering) Digital SLR through
Orion ED80 Refractor on Astro-Physics AP-1200 mount
Focal Ratio: f4.5 via Meade .63 focal reducer
Guiding: None
Conditions: Visually clear
Weather: 70 F
Exposure: 216 minutes total (72 x 3 minutes @ ISO 800)
Filters: Baader UV/IR block internal to camera
Processing: Focused and captured with DSLRFocus.
RAW to TIFF conversion, auto-dark and flat frame calibration, Digital Development,
resizing and JPEG conversion in ImagesPlus. Color correction in Photoshop
PS2. Noise reduction in NeatImage.