Instrument

12.5" RCOS @  ~f/9 (2880 mm fl) 0.64 arcsec / pixel.  The Zoomify image scale is 1.28 to 3.20 arcsec / pixel.

Mount

Paramount ME

Camera

SBIG STL-11000 w/ internal filter wheel, AstroDon Gen I Filters

Acquisition Data

9/19/2010 to 10/27/2010 Chino Valley, AZ... with CCDAutoPilot3 & CCDSoft.  AOL guided

Exposure

Ha  540 min (18 x 30 min, bin 1x1)

Click here for the RGB color version.

Click here for the narrow band color mapped images.

Software

• CCDSoft, CCDStack, Photoshop CS3.

• PixFix32 (pre-beta) to repair column defects.

• CCDStack to calibrate, register, normalize, data reject,  combining the sub exposures and DDP.

• PhotoShop for additional non-linear stretching

• Noiseware Pro, a PhotoShop plug-in

North is ~ to the left.  This close up view of IC 1805 is rotated 110 degrees CCW.

Sprawling across hundreds of light-years, emission nebula IC 1805 is a mix of glowing interstellar gas and dark dust clouds. Only about 7,500 light-years away, stars were born in this region, nicknamed the Heart Nebula. Light from this and other glowing gas clouds surrounding hot, young stars comes in very narrow bands of emission characteristic of energized atoms within the clouds.

This image, captured with a hydrogen-alpha filter, shows the extent of the hydrogen gas.

Source: NASA APOD