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

  1. Image Integration (x3)
  2. Drizzle Integration (x2)
  3. Dynamic Crop
  4. BlurXTerminator (AI deconvolution)
  5. GraXpert (gradient removal)
  6. NoiseXTerminator (AI denoise)
  7. Spectrophotometric Color Calibration
  8. StarXTerminator (star removal)
  9. Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch (x6)
  10. Multiscale Linear Transform
  11. Curves Transformation
  12. PixelMath
  13. 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

  1. Image Integration (x3)
  2. Drizzle Integration (x2)
  3. Dynamic Crop
  4. BlurXTerminator (AI deconvolution)
  5. GraXpert (gradient removal)
  6. NoiseXTerminator (AI denoise)
  7. Spectrophotometric Color Calibration
  8. 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

  1. Color calibration
  2. BlurXTerminator (0.6)
  3. 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

  1. Color calibration
  2. BlurXTerminator (0.3)
  3. Curves adjustment
  4. NoiseXTerminator (0.9)

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