Exposures: 120 min of Ha; 90 min each OIII and SII for a total of 5 hrs
Color mapped using the Hubble Palette by assigning SII to Red, OIII to Blue, and Ha to Green.
FOV = 35 x 52 arc minutes
This region lies at the core of the large emission nebula in Cassiopeia known as IC 1805 (or the Heart Nebula). Named after the British-Belgian astronomer Philibert Jacques Melotte (1880-1961), Melotte 15 is an extremely young cluster of massive OB stars with a mean age of only 1.5 million years. It is one of the core clusters of the Cas OB6 association and contains several O type giants with more than 15 solar masses.
Imaged on my birthday - a gift from the Queen (Cassiopeia)
7500 light years away
Reduced to 65% of original size
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