The Heart Nebula

[crimbfighter]

The Heart Nebula! Imaged last night from my Bortle 5/6 back yard, the Heart Nebula resides in Cassiopeia. The colors of the image were converted to the HOO color pallet, which helps visually separate the Hydrogen and Oxygen gasses. This is a fairly large target, so this image is actually a two panel mosaic (panorama) to fit it all in. Still, it didn't quite fit all the way in! I have captured a wide field shot of this nebula before, but this high resolution image closer in shows a lot more detail.

Images 2 and 3 are crops from the original, high resolution image (had to downsample it to be small enough to upload here) that really help to highlight some of the cool detail and structures in this target.

Tech details
-Astro-Tech AT130EDT 130mm f/7 telescope with a 0.8x reducer, making it a 728mm focal length, f/5.6 scope.
-ZWO ASI2600MC Pro cooled camera
-ZWO EAF focuser
-iOptron HAE43 Strain Wave Gear mount
-Optolong L-Extreme dual narrowband filter
-Pegasus Astro Mini Powerbox
-Orion 60mm guide scope
-Orion Starshoot autoguider
-Controlled with a MeLE Quieter3Q mini PC running Windows

Software
-Sequence Generator Pro for acquisition
-PixInsight and Photoshop for image processing
-PHD2 guiding software

-100 x 180sec subexposures
-calibrated with 15 each darks, flats, and dark flats
-Total integration time of 5hrs (2.5hrs per mosaic panel)

1.

2.

3.

 

[Jeff15]

More great images...

 

[crimbfighter]

More great images...

Thanks!

 

[slat]

Wonderful image.