The Heart Nebula is an emission nebula, 7,500 light-years (2,300 pc) away from Earth and located in the Perseus Arm of the Galaxy in the constellation Cassiopeia.
Click the image to zoom in (4 steps), then again for full view · hover to see it annotated · open full resolutionAnnotated image · click to zoom in (4 steps), then again for full view · open full resolutionSky location chart · click to zoom in (4 steps), then again for full view · open full resolution
The Heart Nebula is an emission nebula, 7,500 light-years (2,300 pc) away from Earth and located in the Perseus Arm of the Galaxy in the constellation Cassiopeia. It was discovered by William Herschel on 3 November 1787. In 1958, it was identified as a radio source by Gart Westerhout and is therefore also referred to as Westerhout 4 . It displays glowing ionized hydrogen gas and darker dust lanes.
[Source: Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_Nebula]
Annotated Image
The annotated version is shown above - click it to zoom. Open the annotated image at full resolution.
Sky Location
The chart above shows where this image sits on the night sky. The yellow outline is its field of view, with the picture itself drawn at its true orientation; north is up and east is left. Click the chart to zoom in, and use "open full resolution" for the full-size chart.
Image Details
| Moon Phase: | New Moon |
|---|---|
| Camera: | ToupTek ATR2600C |
| Optics: | Skywatcher Esprit 120ED, 840 mm focal length, f/7 (120 mm aperture, APO triplet) |
| Filter: | Triad Quad |
| Binning: | 1x1 |
| Date: | 2026-09-12 |
| Number of images: | 36 |
| Exposure per image: | 10 min (600 s) |
| Total imaging time: | 6 h |
PixInsight Processing
- Image Integration (x3)
- Drizzle Integration (x2)
- Dynamic Crop
- BlurXTerminator (AI deconvolution)
- GraXpert (gradient removal)
- NoiseXTerminator (AI denoise)
- Spectrophotometric Color Calibration
- StarXTerminator (star removal)
- Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch (x6)
- Multiscale Linear Transform
- Curves Transformation
- PixelMath
- Multiscale Median Transform
Click the image to zoom in (4 steps), then again for full view · hover to see it annotated · open full resolutionAnnotated image · click to zoom in (4 steps), then again for full view · open full resolutionSky location chart · click to zoom in (4 steps), then again for full view · open full resolution
The Heart Nebula is an emission nebula, 7,500 light-years (2,300 pc) away from Earth and located in the Perseus Arm of the Galaxy in the constellation Cassiopeia. It was discovered by William Herschel on 3 November 1787. In 1958, it was identified as a radio source by Gart Westerhout and is therefore also referred to as Westerhout 4 . It displays glowing ionized hydrogen gas and darker dust lanes.
[Source: Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_Nebula]
Annotated Image
The annotated version is shown above - click it to zoom. Open the annotated image at full resolution.
Sky Location
The chart above shows where this image sits on the night sky. The yellow outline is its field of view, with the picture itself drawn at its true orientation; north is up and east is left. Click the chart to zoom in, and use "open full resolution" for the full-size chart.
Image Details
| Moon Phase: | New Moon |
|---|---|
| Camera: | ToupTek ATR2600C |
| Optics: | Skywatcher Esprit 120ED, 840 mm focal length, f/7 (120 mm aperture, APO triplet) |
| Filter: | Triad Quad |
| Binning: | 1x1 |
| Date: | 2026-09-12 |
| Number of images: | 36 |
| Exposure per image: | 10 min (600 s) |
| Total imaging time: | 6 h |
PixInsight Processing
- Image Integration (x3)
- Drizzle Integration (x2)
- Dynamic Crop
- BlurXTerminator (AI deconvolution)
- GraXpert (gradient removal)
- NoiseXTerminator (AI denoise)
- Spectrophotometric Color Calibration
- Multiscale Adaptive Stretch (x3)
Click the image to zoom in (4 steps), then again for full view · open full resolutionSky location chart · click to zoom in (4 steps), then again for full view · open full resolution
The Heart Nebula is an emission nebula, 7,500 light-years (2,300 pc) away from Earth and located in the Perseus Arm of the Galaxy in the constellation Cassiopeia. It was discovered by William Herschel on 3 November 1787. In 1958, it was identified as a radio source by Gart Westerhout and is therefore also referred to as Westerhout 4 . It displays glowing ionized hydrogen gas and darker dust lanes.
[Source: Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_Nebula]
Sky Location
The chart above shows where this image sits on the night sky. The yellow outline is its field of view, with the picture itself drawn at its true orientation; north is up and east is left. Click the chart to zoom in, and use "open full resolution" for the full-size chart.
Image Details
| Moon Phase: | New Moon |
|---|---|
| Camera: | ToupTek ATR2600C |
| Optics: | Skywatcher Esprit 120ED, 840 mm focal length, f/7 (120 mm aperture, APO triplet) |
| Filter: | Triad Quad |
| Binning: | 1x1 |
| Stacking: | StackingWizard, 27 frames |
| Date: | 2026-09-12 |
| Number of images: | 27 |
| Exposure per image: | 10 min (600 s) |
| Total imaging time: | 4 h 30 min |
AstroWizard Processing
- Color calibration
- BlurXTerminator (0.6)
- NoiseXTerminator (0.9) (x2)
Click the image to zoom in (4 steps), then again for full view · hover to see it annotated · open full resolutionAnnotated image · click to zoom in (4 steps), then again for full view · open full resolutionSky location chart · click to zoom in (4 steps), then again for full view · open full resolution
The Heart Nebula is an emission nebula, 7,500 light-years (2,300 pc) away from Earth and located in the Perseus Arm of the Galaxy in the constellation Cassiopeia. It was discovered by William Herschel on 3 November 1787. In 1958, it was identified as a radio source by Gart Westerhout and is therefore also referred to as Westerhout 4 . It displays glowing ionized hydrogen gas and darker dust lanes.
[Source: Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_Nebula]
Annotated Image
The annotated version is shown above - click it to zoom. Open the annotated image at full resolution.
Sky Location
The chart above shows where this image sits on the night sky. The yellow outline is its field of view, with the picture itself drawn at its true orientation; north is up and east is left. Click the chart to zoom in, and use "open full resolution" for the full-size chart.
Image Details
| Moon Phase: | New Moon |
|---|---|
| Camera: | ToupTek ATR2600C |
| Optics: | Skywatcher Esprit 120ED, 840 mm focal length, f/7 (120 mm aperture, APO triplet) |
| Filter: | Triad Quad |
| Binning: | 1x1 |
| Date: | 2026-09-12 |
| Exposure per image: | 10 min (600 s) |
AstroWizard Processing
- Color calibration
- BlurXTerminator (0.3)
- Curves adjustment
- NoiseXTerminator (0.9)