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Scope: C8 203mm at f/4.6, Location: Laguna Mountains, CA 15 September, 2007, Camera: Artemis285
Exposure: 10 x 8 min H-Alpha (1x1), 8 x 1.5 min RGB Exposures (2x2).
Processing: Images were captured with Artemis Capture (as FITs). Aligned/stacked and dark subtracted in Astroart with Sigma Combine. H-Alpha and Color channels were scaled and color balanced in Astroart. Channels were co-registered in Astroart. Luminance construction consisted of the H-Alpha exposure. Curves and Levels applied in Photoshop to the Luminance construction to optimize object features. Final LRGB combine was done in Photoshop using Luminance Layering (or LLRGB) in LAB Color Space. A color adjustment made to correct the color at low RGB signal levels. Luminance applied in LAB Color Space seemed to minimize hue shift in the Luminance Layering. A light background noise reduction was applied in PixInsight LE (SBNR) Selective sharpening was applied to nebula features in Photoshop with a layer mask. Final Image size is approximately 1044x1392
North is up in this image. This is a close up of the "Heart of the Heart" (IC 1805) and is located in the Constellation of Cassiopeia. This area is an emission nebula complex part of a much larger emission complex known as the "Heart Nebula". The star cluster catalogued as Melotte 15 is the source of the UV radiation energizing the nebula emission. The cluster is estimated to be 7,500 light years distant from Earth. The Horizontal FOV is 32'.
Image center is located approximately - Equatorial 2000: RA: 02h 33m 13s Dec: +61°28'01"