The Heart Nebula is one of those objects I like to image every year. It's an emission nebula located in the constellation of Cassiopeia, and is about 7500 light years away.
This was one of my first attempts at this target, November 10,2012
QHY9M & Orion ED102CF refractor 11/10/2012
R-3x900 binned 2x2
R-6x300 binned 2x2
G-4x300 binned 2x2
B-5x300 binned 2x2
Images acquired, aligned and stacked with Nebulosity V2.0
Guiding with Orion 50mm mini guider, SSAG and Phd
Combined & post processed with Photoshop CS6
My next attempt, almost 1 year later November 5,2013. This time I tried the HST or Hubble Space Telescope palette instead of tradition RGB. Different telescope as well, an AstroTech 65mm refractor
QHY9M & AstroTech AT65EDQ refractor
HA- 5-20 minute subs as Green
OIII- 3- 30 minute subs as Blue
SII- 2-30 minute as Red
Images acquired, aligned and stacked with Nebulosity V2.0
Guiding with Starlight Xpress Off-Axis guider, QHY5L-II and Phd
Images acquired with APT
Align & Stacked with Nebulosity
Combined & post processed with Photoshop CS6
My latest attempt, taken September 25 & 26,2014, also in HST palette. This image centers on the central core region called Melotte 15
This panel shows Melotte 15, highlighted in light blue.
The 11" Celestron telescope provides a much smaller field of view.
The left panel has a radius of 1.5 degrees & the right .2 degrees
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QHY23M & Celestron 11" Edge HD
R-10x120 binned 4x4
G-10x120 binned 4x4
B-10x120 binned 4x4
Ha-10x300 binned 4x4
OIII-10x300 binned 4x4
SII-10x300 binned 4x4
Images acquired with APT
Aligned and stacked with Nebulosity V2.0
Guiding with Starlight Xpress OAG, QHY5L-II and Phd
Stacked & DDP applied with Nebulosity
Combined & post processed with Photoshop CS6
