The Heart Nebula, widefield. This image contains so many interesting things…the birthplace of stars, the death of stars, and just about everything in between.
Taken over the course of 57 nights, this was a team effort between my dear friend @Drew Evans and myself. Drew acquired the Oiii data from his Bortle 2 home observatory (NAZ Observatory), and I gathered the Hydrogen and Sulfur data from my Bortle 8-9 in Nashville, TN. Processing was done by yours truly.
Processing this image was a real bear…with so much integration time and such a wild dynamic range, it was very difficult to get the bright and faint parts to both look presentable. It took a couple of weeks, but I’m happy with this one.
We hope you enjoy this image as much as we enjoyed acquiring and processing it!
Taken over 57 nights from 8/17 – 10/30
Nashville, TN and Flagstaff, AZ
Imaging Telescope: TPO UltraWide 180 f/4.5
Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI2600MM Pro
Mount: ZWO AM5
Antlia 3nm Narrowband H-alpha 2″: 1698×300″ (141h 30′) -10°C
Antlia 3nm Narrowband Sulfur II 2″: 1079×480″ (143h 52′) -10°C
Chroma OIII 3nm Bandpass 2″: 720×600″ (120h) -10°C
Integration: 405h 22′
Software: ASIAir, Pixinsight, Photoshop