Heart Nebula in SHO Palette
Starless Version
Heart Nebula in SHO
Photo Capture Info:
Panel 1 (top)
(94) 3 Minute Exposures in Ha - 4hrs, 42mins
(104) 4 Minute Exposures in Sii - 6hrs, 56mins
(103) 3 Minute Exposures in Oiii - 6hrs, 52mins
Total Integration time: 18 hours, 30 minutes
Panel 2 (bottom)
(68) 3 Minute Exposures in Ha - 3hrs, 24mins
(70) 4 Minute Exposures in Sii - 4hrs, 40mins
(64) 3 Minute Exposures in Oiii - 4hrs, 16mins
Total Integration time: 11 hours, 30 minutes
Optical Equipment Used:
Antlia SHO Filters
Scope: Explore Scientific ED 127mm refractor
Camera: ZWO 2600mm
Guide scope: Agena Astro 60mm refractor
Guide camera: ZWO ASI120mm-S
Computerized Equipment and Software:
Mount: Losmandy G11G
Beelink Mini PC S Intel 11th Gen
Focuser: ZWO EAF (Electronically Assisted Focuser)
Filter Wheel: ZWO 7 Position
Pegasus Pocket Powerbox Micro
PixInsight for Processing
About The Heart Nebula
The Heart Nebula (IC 1805) is an emission nebula located at an approximate distance of 7,500 light years from Earth, in the constellation Cassiopeia. It is also known as Sharpless 2-190 (Sh2-190) or the Running Dog Nebula because, when seen through a telescope, it looks a bit like a running dog. The nebula has an apparent magnitude of 18.3 and an absolute magnitude of 6.5. It is 150 arcminutes in size and known for its intensely red glowing gas and dark dust lanes forming a shape that resembles a heart symbol.
The Heart Nebula is formed by plasma of ionized hydrogen and free electrons.
Credit: https://www.constellation-guide.com/heart-nebula/
The Heart nebula resides in the wonderful constellation of Cassiopeia
Sulfur II (Sii)
Oxygen III (Oiii)
Hydrogen Alpha
The Chair or 'W' of Cassiopeia
About Casseiopeia
Mythology:
An ancient constellation that is part of the story of Perseus and Andromeda. Cassiopeia was the mother of Andromeda, and because of her boasting that she was more beautiful than the sea nymphs, the Nereids, she was forced by the god Poseidon to sacrifice her daughter to the sea monster Cetus. Also as punishment the image of Cassiopeia was placed in the sky in such a way that during part of the year the queen appears upside down.
Astronomy Facts:
Sits in the outer Milky Way
GREAT for Binoculars!
Is Circumpolar (Seen in the northern Hemisphere year round)
Easy to show and teach to Kids "W in the sky"
Contains Open Clusters M52 and M103 (Use Binoculars and Star Charts to find them!)
Jabba the Hutt & a Seahorse
Jabba appears to be blue in this image :-)
The Fish Head
IC 1795, often called the Fish Head Nebula, is a star forming region 6,000 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia. It is found just off the tip of the Heart Nebula. The bright portion of this nebula also carries the designation NGC 896. The dark nebula in the upper right of the image is LDN 1359.
Heart of the Heart
Amazing Contrast
by using the three filters where the signal is strong in all three channels.
Long integration
Allows for much greater detail
WeBo-1
WeBo 1 is a planetary nebula that was discovered in 1995 by Ron Webbink. It is a highly elliptical, oval-shaped disc of glowing gas that surrounds a binary star system. WeBo 1 is also known as PN G135.6+01.0.
- Generative AI is experimental
PixInsight Processing Details
WBPP used for calibrating and stacking for each panel and drizzled to 2x
(for best round stars even when zoomed)For all 6 SHO files, ran Grapert to remove gradients
Combined SHO file to make the 2 individual panels
MosaicByCoordinates to create the panel overlays
GradientMergeMosaic to create the 2 panel mosaic.
DynamicCrop to remove the black parts of the panels.
Used BlurXtermiator in correct only mode,
Used ImageAnlaysis to provide coordinate data
Used SpectrographicPCC to correct color and background in SHO mode.
Used BlurXtermiator for sharpening and enhancing,
SHO Narrowband Normalization with Oiii boost of .625 and Sii boast of .7
Invert Image -> SCNR -> Invert Image to remove magenta background and magenta stars
Histogram Stretch to get to Linear State
Removed Stars using Star XTerminator
HDRMultiscaleTransform
Slight Curves Adjustment on LRGB, Bleu, a even slighter on Red
LocalHistogramEqualization @ 125
LocalHistogramEqualization @ 200
MultiscaleLinearTransform with small values to Sharpen
Add back the Stars
ICC Profile Transformation (Ready image for the Web)