| Melotte 15 and the "Dragon's Lair" |
This is a photo of the central portion of the IC1805, the "Heart" nebula complex in Cassiopeia, containing the cluster
Melotte 15 and the formations I've referred to as the "Dragon's Lair" at its core. Melotte 15 contains several young
(mean age 1.5 million years), bright "O" and "B" type stars which helps to "light up" the interesting dust clouds.
Judging by the estimated 7500 lyr distance, the two "dragons" are on the order of 3-4 lyr in extent. The head of the
upper member itself would easily contain our solar system, including the Oort cloud, or at least the smaller Hills
cloud.
Photo details:
Taken w/ the H9 through Astronomik 6nm Ha filter in the FLI wheel on the 10" SPX newt at f/4.8. The photo consists of
22 X 7min subexposures, flat calibrated and processed in MaximDL, PixInsight (deconvolution), and Photoshop CS2.
Melotte 15 and the formations I've referred to as the "Dragon's Lair" at its core. Melotte 15 contains several young
(mean age 1.5 million years), bright "O" and "B" type stars which helps to "light up" the interesting dust clouds.
Judging by the estimated 7500 lyr distance, the two "dragons" are on the order of 3-4 lyr in extent. The head of the
upper member itself would easily contain our solar system, including the Oort cloud, or at least the smaller Hills
cloud.
Photo details:
Taken w/ the H9 through Astronomik 6nm Ha filter in the FLI wheel on the 10" SPX newt at f/4.8. The photo consists of
22 X 7min subexposures, flat calibrated and processed in MaximDL, PixInsight (deconvolution), and Photoshop CS2.