The Heart Nebula Project

18:55 7/9/2009 UTC

Finally I got some time and clear sky to do SII and OIII exposures to this. Moon was nearly full while shooting this so I got difficult gradient to my OIII frame. I also haven't done darks for the binned subs so this image is not properly calibrated yet. And on top of all this my ED80 lens was fogged due to low voltage cutoff in dew controller... I might have to shoot the OIII and SII once more to get decent signal to the image.
Update 20/10/2009: I reprocessed this image using a Tone Mapping technique by J-P Metsävainio. Now the channels have proper calibration frames also.

NGC/IC Object List:
NGC896 gaseous nebula RA:02h25m27.8 Dec:+62°01m'10" BMag: , SG 1.04
IC1805 open cluster RA:02h32m41.4 Dec:+61°27m'25" BMag: , OCL 352

[High Resolution : 2006x1946 @ 3.18 arcsec/pixel]

Camera: Atik Instruments 4000LE | Telescope: Skywatcher ED80 Pro 80mm f7.5 refractor, William Optics 0.8x focal reducer | Mount: Vixen GP-D2, Boxdoerfer PowerFlex MTS-3SLP drive controller | Filters: Baader H-alpha 7nm 2", Baader SII 8nm 2", Baader OIII 8.5nm 2" | Guiding: The Imaging Source DMK 21AU04.AS CCD camera, Orion ShortTube 80mm f5 refractor, Stark-Labs PHD Guiding | Exposure: SII 6x600s (1h) 2x2 binned, dithered, CCD @ - 20°, OIII 6x600s (1h) 2x2 binned, dithered, CCD @ - 20° Ha 13x900s (3h15m) unbinned, dithered, CCD @ -20° f6, | Software: CCDWare CCDStack, Adobe Photoshop CS4, Stark-Labs Nebulosity 2 | Location: 60°31'N 26°52'E (Koivula/Kotka,FI) | Image Field: 1.774 x 1.723 degrees | Image Center: Ra 02h32m34s Dec +61°36'06" | Target altitude in the beginning of the exposure 47°