Heart Nebula IC1805 Sharpless 2-190
Designations: Heart Nebula, IC 1805, Running Dog Nebula, Sharpless 2-190, Sh2-190
The Heart Nebula (also known as the Running dog nebula, IC 1805, Sharpless 2-190) is an emission nebula, 7500 light years away from Earth and located in the Perseus Arm of the Galaxy in the constellation Cassiopeia. It was discovered by William Herschel on 3 November 1787. It displays glowing ionized hydrogen gas and darker dust lanes.
The brightest part of the nebula (a knot at its western edge) is separately classified as NGC 896 (see annotated image classification and location), 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 stars near the nebula’s center. This open cluster of stars, known as Collinder 26 or Melotte 15, 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 Sun’s mass.
The Heart Nebula is also made up of ionised oxygen and sulfur gasses, responsible for the rich blue and orange colours seen in narrowband images. The shape of the nebula is driven by stellar winds from the hot stars in its core. The nebula also spans almost 2 degrees in the sky, covering an area four times that of the diameter of the full moon.
Melotte 15
Several of the bright stars in Melotte 15 have a mass almost 50 times that of the Sun, as well as many faint stars far less massive than the Sun. Melotte 15 once contained a microquasar, a radio emitting X-ray binary system, but the system was expelled from the cluster millions of years ago.
The Heart Nebula is located in the vicinity of Maffei 1 (PGC 9892) and Maffei 2 (UGCA 39), which are the brightest galaxies in the IC 342/Maffei Group — the nearest galaxy group to our Local Group.
The Heart and Soul nebulae shine bright in red light due to the emission of that specific colour of light by the excited nearby hydrogen gas and form a large star-forming complex in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way. The region is barely visible in small telescopes.
The region of the sky that the Heart and Soul nebulae are in also contains several smaller nebulae, such as the Fish head Nebula. The region contains seven open clusters of young stars.
Image
Date acquire 7/12/2022-08/12-2022
Location Fareham, Hampshire , UK
Ra 02,34,27.725
Ra image center 38.615520
Dec +61, 33m 13.16
Dec image center 61.553665
Camera ZWO6200mm pro
Filters Ha,Oiii,Sii Antilia 3nm
Telescope William Optics 81GT
Mount Celestron CGLX
Overview
- Object: Emission nebula
- Constellation: Cassiopeia
- Right ascension: 02h 33m 22s
- Declination: +61° 26′ 36″
- Apparent size: 150′ x 150′
- Apparent magnitude: 18.3
- Absolute magnitude: 6.5
- Radius: 165 light years
- Distance: 7,500 light years
