Melotte 15 in Hubble Palette

At age of 14 I lived in a remote village where some books were difficult to get, put telescopes aside. It all started with binoculars, but then a miracle happened, and I got a very old and small telescope that I pointed towards Jupiter first, and then M42. My life has changed forever. 20 years later, I finally am able to invest in my love for astronomy, so in 2021 I started doing astrophotography properly.

Here is my latest project, the heart of Heart Nebula, Melotte 15, in Hubble palette (SHO). I was ignoring it for quite a long time, as the whole nebula does not fit in my field of view. But then one day I did a test in Ha and I saw the beauty of the central region of the nebula and fell in love with it. Having limited patch of sky available from my backyard (light pollution domes on one side of the sky, the house covering half the sky on the other), I needed to do multiple cold nights in December to get enough data, but it totally worth it.

 

Telescope: 150mm f/5 newtonian
Imaging camera: Altair Hypercam 183C Pro (I am saving now for 183M for proper narrow-band on monochrome camera, OSC is not so good for it)

Single sub: 5 minutes, guided
Sky: City, Bortle 8 😞

SII: 3h 35m
Ha: 1h 15m
OIII: 4h 35m

Stars: SII + OIII processed separately