Located about 7,500 light-years from Earth are IC 1805 and IC 1848, the Heart and Soul Nebulae. Also shown is IC 1795, the Fish Head nebula. These nebulae are large star-forming complexes making up part of the Perseus spiral arm in our own Milky Way galaxy. Together these nebulae span nearly 580 light years across. They are dim, but from a dark sky location they can be seen through a small telescope.
The Heart Nebula, IC 1805, was discovered in 1787. It is 7,500 light years away and was named due to the distinctive shape. In the center of the nebula is the open star cluster Melotte 15. This cluster contains a few stars nearly 50 times the mass of our sun and more young stars, only a few million years old.
Neighboring the Heart Nebula and at the same 7,500 light years away is the Soul Nebula, IC 1848. Another star forming region, this one is sometimes known as the Embryo Nebula.
The third nebula in the complex is the Fish Head Nebula, IC 1795. This nebula appears to be attached to the Heart Nebula. It spans about 70 light years across.
This image was taken using a 100mm camera lens. The Nebulae group is large, so it does not require much magnification. It is, however, very dim and not visible to the naked eye.
The final image uses 289 images, ~24 hours exposure time. The data was taken from the backyard in July of 2020. Due to large amount of Hydrogen emissions I used narrowband filters on a monochrome astro camera. The Hydrogen shows up as red in the image. I also collected Sulfur and Oxygen emissions, combining them using PixInsight for editing. A lot of gas and dust can be seen in the background surrounding the nebulae. The Heart and Soul Nebulae, in narrowband.
- SII: 76 images, 6.3 hours
- Ha: 103 images, 8.6 hours
- OIII: 110 images, 9.2 hours
