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| Catalogue and alternative designations |
IC 1805, Heart nebula, Sharpless- 2 190 |
| Type | Emission Nebula |
| Position | 03 32 35.57, 61 29 2.3 |
| Constellation | Cassiopeia |
| Camera and Telescope | QSI 583 WSG, 20cm Maksutov Newtonian courtesy Dean Salman |
| Focal Ratio | F4 |
| Exposure Details | HaLRGB 560:150:150:150 with Astrodon series 2 filters |
| Description | The
Heart Nebula, IC 1805,
Sh2-190, lies some 7500
light years away and is located
in the Perseus Arm of the Galaxy
in the constellation Cassiopeia.
This is an emission nebula
showing glowing gas and darker
dust lanes. This image
only shows a part of the total
nebula.
The nebula's intense red output and its configuration are driven by the radiation emanating from a small group of stars near the nebula's center. This open cluster of stars known as Melotte 15 contains a few bright stars nearly 50 times the mass of our Sun, and many more dim stars that are only a fraction of our Sun's mass. The cluster used to contain a microquasar that was expelled millions of years ago. (description adapted from Wikipedia)
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