Imaged above is the eastern section of IC1805, the famous Heart Nebula in Cassiopeia, which form a beatiful nebular complex togheter with IC1848, named as the Soul Nebula. IC1805 is extended for one square degree, and the section represented on the image is about a quarter of the whole nebula. The object is a wonderful mix of emission and dark nebulas, and contains the open cluster Mel15, which is formed by 30 star (ar center right, near the brightest part of the nebula).

Camera : Starlight Xpress SXV-H9 with Astronomik 13nm Ha filter


Telescope : Takahashi FS-102 at F/6 with focal reducer on a GM2000-FS2


Guiding : ST4 on a Vixen 80/910mm.


Exposure : 6x600sec. unbinned


Processing : MaxIm (align, combine, stretching) - Photoshop (final enhancing)


Location : Piano di Nivolet (Val d'Aosta) - 2600mt. height


Date : August 22, 2003

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