Instrument

12.5" RCOS @  ~f/9 (2880 mm fl) 0.643 arcsec / pixel. 

Top shown resampled to 3.42 arcsec / pixel... ~1/5 size and rotated 90 deg. CW

Bottom shown resampled to 1.55 arcsec / pixel... ~41% size with north to the top

Mount

Paramount ME

Camera

SBIG STL-11000 w/ internal filter wheel, AstroDon 6nm Filters

Acquisition Data

9/29/2009 to 10/06/2009 Chino Valley... with CCDSoft and CCDAutoPilot3

Exposure

Hα  540 min.  (18 x 30 min. bin 1x1)

Click here for the narrow band color mapped version.
Click here for an LRGB image.

Software

CCDSoft, CCDStack, Photoshop CS w/ the Fits Liberator plugin and Noel Carboni's actions.

CCDStack to calibrate, register, normalize, data reject & combine the sub exposures.

PixFix32 (pre-beta) to repair hot/cold pixels and column defects.

PhotoShop for non-linear stretching and sharpening.

Located at the center of its parent emission nebula, IC 1805 (The Heart nebula), is the star cluster Melotte 15. Stellar winds and radiation, from the young hot massive stars in the cluster, form the nebula gasses into this beautiful tree like sculpture. IC 1805 is about 7,500 light years away, toward the constellation Cassiopeia. It is illuminated by Melotte 15, which is located about 50 light years closer.