November 07, 2021

The Heart Nebula

My Kid: “Wow that looks like a heart!” Me: “Guess what its called.”

This is IC 1805, the Heart Nebula. Its an emission nebula 7500 light years from us. This image also contains NGC 896 at the bottom, known as the fish head nebula, which was discovered first.

This is a false color image showing ionized hydrogen as red orange and ionized oxygen as blue green. In true color this would appear as red because the ionized hydrogen is dominant.

I imaged this on October 31st. Its about 7 hours total exposure. I think it probably needs more exposure time.

RA: 02h33m57s.6
DEC: +61°26′16″