Image Description and Details :

Our first picture with our remote imaging setup in south Portugal (Alelentejo Remote Observatory managed by the ARO TEAM).
Our team named AstroDarkTeam is a team of two passionate french amateur astronomers : Stephane Rolland and Pascal Gouraud
We have installed our setup in south Portugal (EQ8-R + TOA130) on mid-october 2021 and we have been imaging since end of October 2021.
Our first target is IC1805 an emission nebula and star cluster Melotte 15.
Clouds in this area are sculpted by stellar winds and radiation from massive hot stars in the nebula cluster, Melotte 15 (about 1.5 million years young).
This 15 light-years wide field view includes emission from ionized hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen atoms.
The Heart Nebula. IC 1805 is located about 7,500 light years away toward the constellation Cassiopeia.

Regarding imaging sessions, We have got some issues with thermal amplitude and humidity.
Some improvements still to be done regarding subframe exposure (moving to 15 or 20 minutes) and better subframe selection.
Regarding processing, we have been unable to integrate LRVB shots to improve star colors, so still to be improved for future pictures.
For a first run, we are quite happy with this result.


Copyright: Pascal Gouraud / AstroDarkTeam

Here is my latest Hubble Palette (SHO) version, a very wide view of The Heart IC1805 and Soul Nebula IC1848 using data from Grand Mesa Observatory’s System 1a the William Optics Redcat together with a QHY16200A Monochrome CCD, this combination is giving a field of view of approximately 6 x 5 degrees, In this Hubble Palette version the H-Alpha is mapped to green, SII is mapped to red and OIII is mapped to the blue channel. Captured over 6 nights in 2020 and 2021 for a total acquisition time of 15.3 hours. 7000-7500 light-years distant in the constellation of Cassiopeia lie the emission nebulae colloquially known as the Heart and The Soul Nebulae. The gasses (mostly hydrogen) that comprise the nebulae are being ionized by the stars within the region and as a result, the gasses glow, much like a neon sign. The pressures exerted upon the material by the stars nearby are causing the material to become compressed. When enough of the gas becomes highly compacted, it triggers the birth of new stars. In effect, this is a beautiful snapshot of a multimillion-year process of an enormous cloud of dust and gas transforming itself into new stars. Technical Details Captured and processed by: Terry Hancock Location: GrandMesaObservatory.com Purdy Mesa, Colorado Sep 29th, Oct 14th, 16th, Nov 11th 2020, Jan 1st and 2nd 2021 HA 270 min 27 x 600 sec OIII 340 min 34 x600 sec SII 310 min 31 x 600 sec Filters by Chroma Camera: QHY16200A Gain 0, Offset 130 Calibrated with Flat, Dark and Bias Frames. Optics: William Optics Redcat 51 APO @ F4.9 EQ Mount: Paramount MEII Image Acquisition software Maxim DL6 Pre Processing in Pixinsight Post Processed in Photoshop CC Star Removal by Starnet



Copyright: Terry Hancock