Heart Nebula

Object Type: Emission Nebula
Scope: APO 80mm; Exposure 230 minutes.

The Heart Nebula (IC 1805, Sh2-190) is a large emission nebula about 7,500 light-years away in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way, in Cassiopeia. Its glowing hydrogen gas and dark dust lanes are energized by a central open cluster of young stars called Melotte 15, which contains several stars nearly 50 times the mass of the Sun. The brightest knot at one edge is separately catalogued as NGC 896, the first part of the complex to be discovered. The nebula's shape and intense red glow are driven by radiation from that central cluster.