The Heart Nebula (at right), aka IC 1805, and the Soul Nebula (at left), aka IC 1848 but also known as the Embryo Nebula, all in Cassiopeia. The small patch of nebulosity at upper right is NGC 896; the small and hard to distinguish star cluster above centre is NGC 1027. The loose star cluster at the heart of the Heart Nebula is Mel 15. The dust-reddened and small galaxies Maffei I and II are in the field at bottom right. This is a stack of: — 10 x 6-minutes at ISO 800 without a filter, — 4 x 12-minutes at ISO 2000 with an Optolong L-Enhance filter, — and 3 x 8-minutes at ISO 3200 with an IDAS LPR v3 filter … Taken as part of a series testing various filters. The IDAS did nearly as good a job as the L-Enhance. All were through the Borg 77mm f/4 astrographic refractor with the Canon EOS Ra camera, and autoguided with the new Lacerta MGEN-3 stand-alone autoguider, using its dithering function to shift the images a few pixels between each exposure so when aligning any thermal noise specks average out. It worked very well. All taken without LENR or dark frames though this was a cool night, this first night of autumn, Sept. 22-23, 2020. Taken from home on the Astro-Physics Mach1 mount. All stacking, aligning and blending with Photoshop 2020.
The Heart Nebula, IC 8105, in Cassiopeia, with nebula NGC 896 at upper right and star cluster NGC 1027 at left of centre. This is a stack of 15 x 5-minute exposures with the Nikon D810a as part of testing, at ISO 1600, and with the TMB 92mm apo refractor at f/4.4 with the Borg 0.85x field flattener with the extra spacer ring. However, edges are still soft. Taken from home Nov 29, 2015.
The large emission nebula IC 1805 in Cassiopeia, aka the Heart Nebula. The round nebula at top right is NGC 896. The large loose star cluster at centre is Mel 15; the star cluster at left is NGC 1027. The small cluster below NGC 896 is Tombaugh 4. This is a stack of 8 x 6-minute exposures with the Canon EOS Ra mirrorless camera at ISO 1600 through the Astro-Physics Traveler apo refractor at f/6 with the Hotech field flattener. Stacked, aligned and processed in Photoshop.
