This is an absolutely stunning image of the Heart Nebula captured by member Kevin Langford over 2 nights on the 7th and 9th Jan 2025 from Bexley, Kent.

The Heart Nebula (also known as the Running Dog Nebula and Sharpless 2-190) is an emission nebula, 7,500 light-years away from Earth and located in the constellation Cassiopeia. The nebula spans almost 2 degrees in the sky, covering an area four times that of the diameter of the full moon. It was discovered by William Herschel on 3 November 1787.  

”The brightest part of the nebula (a knot at its western edge) is separately classified as NGC 896, because it was the first part of the nebula to be discovered. The nebula’s intense red output and its morphology are driven by the radiation emanating from a small group of hot stars near the nebula’s center. This open cluster of stars, known as Collinder 26, Melotte 15, or IC 1805, contains a few bright stars nearly 50 times the mass of the Sun, and many more dim stars that are only a fraction of the Solar mass.” Ref:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_Nebula

Kevin acquired his image using:

ES 102ED APO, 0.7x focal reducer corrector, and EQ5 Pro.

ZWO ASI071, and Orion MMAG,L-eNhance filter.

7.5 Hrs of exposures.

Number of images taken 150 x 180sec.

Software used:

Sirilic to stack images.

Siril to processes image.

Affinity Photo 2 to finish.

Check out Kevin’s flickr page at https://www.flickr.com/photos/77708720@N08/ to see more of his fantastic images.

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