Melotte 15 - Heart of the Heart Nebula

[Paramount]

Hi All
I did this the other night after I finished the data for my M27 image, I have wanted to have a go at this section of the Heart Nebula with the H9 and BRC-250 as my two previous attempts at this target have been with the TMB 115 and H36 which gives a much wider field. This combination that I am currently using gives a very close in detailed shot of the tight knotted nebula structure in the middle of IC1805 and is associated with the open cluster Melotte 15. This was taken with 12x10 minutes with an Astronomik 13nm Ha filter. The Paramount was guided using the TMB 115 and Starlight Xpress M8C using dithering. As this subject becomes visible earlier in the night (blocked by a neighbours tree until 2am at the moment) I will revisit it and do much longer for Ha and also add the other emission lines OIII and SII.
Although an unfair comparison, the other two images, one in Ha and one in HST palette can be seen in the Nebulae section of the image gallery on my website http://www.imagingtheheavens.co.uk
Thanks for looking
Best wishes
Gordon

[Glom]

The fuzzy discs around the stars near the nebula, is that a CCD effect or is it an actual smearing effect of the cloud?

[Paramount]

The fuzzy discs around the stars near the nebula, is that a CCD effect or is it an actual smearing effect of the cloud?

Hi
The fuzzy discs or halos around the stars are a known issue with Astronomik Ha and OIII filters which I use, they can be reduced in Photoshop using layer/adjustment/curves which I have been experimenting with, here is my first go at this technique
Best wishes
Gordon