redshift astro
astrophotography blog / brian hitney

The Heart & Soul Wide-field

nebulae

Located in Cassiopeia at about 7,500 light years away and 200 light years wide, IC1805, The Heart Nebula gets its name from its heart-shaped appearance. Its neighbor, IC1848, The Soul Nebula, is its nearby neighbor. This natural visible spectrum image, the nebulae shows their red glow characteristic of emission nebulae.

NASA’s WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) has captured some fantastic imagery and explains:

The two nebulae are both massive star-making factories, marked by giant bubbles that were blown into surrounding dust by radiation and winds from the stars. WISE's infrared vision allows it to see into the cooler and dustier crevices of clouds like these, where gas and dust are just beginning to collect into new stars. These stars are less than a few million of years old -- youngsters in comparison to stars like the sun, which is nearly 5 billion years old.

This image consists of 25 300s exposures using a Canon T4i and 200mm EF-L lens.

Resolution ........ 4.564 arcsec/pix
Rotation .......... -178.698 deg
Focal ............. 203.39 mm
Pixel size ........ 4.50 um
Field of view ..... 4d 22' 6.0" x 3d 51' 49.7"
Image center ...... RA: 02 43 19.231  Dec: +61 11 38.60