Heart Nebula 11/10/24






Heart Nebula

Recently, I took a photo of the Heart Nebula. The Heart Nebula or IC 1805 is an emission nebula located in Cassiopeia. Hydrogen alpha is the most abundant gas in the Heart Nebula. A common target for beginners like myself. 

As I was setting up my scope, I noticed an owl perched on the top of my house.  This owl pays a visit every few days. 

I set the time on the mount and began my polar alignment, as it was getting pretty dark and the owl had gone. Now that I could actually see the stars, I slowly noticed Cassiopeia close to some trees and Cygnus above me. It was stunning.

I aligned with the star Ruchbah and slewed to the Heart Nebula and started testing with 2 minute exposures. The Heart Nebula was perfectly in frame and 2 minute exposures seemed like a pretty good length for this target. I started around 100 2 minute exposures. 

The next day I took my flats but I didn’t have enough time to process my images until a few days later but when I got the time, it processed them and they did not turn out too bad. There is a bit of glare on the outside, but overall i'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Here is a starless photo of the same image:



Location: 601 33rd St, Sacramento, CA 95816, USA

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