Instrument

12.5" RCOS @  ~f/9 (2880 mm fl) 0.643 arcsec / pixel.  The Zoomify image scale is 0.94 to 2.35 arcsec / pixel.

Mount

Paramount ME

Camera

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

Acquisition Data

09/29/2009 to 10/23/2009 Chino Valley, AZ... with CCDAutoPilot3 & CCDSoft.

Exposure

Lum    240 min (8 x 30 min, bin 1x1)

RGB    450 min (5 x 30 min each, bin 1x1)

Click here for the narrow band color mapped version.
Click here for an Ha filtered b/w version.

Software

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

Noel Carboni's StarSpikes Pro was used to restore and sharpen the normal spider defraction spikes.

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

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

PhotoShop for LLRGB combine &  on-linear stretching.

North is to the top.

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.