Young stars in the heart of the cosmos: more than 20 hours of Melotte 15

Hello everyone!

I'm back and today I have something very special for you: the Melotte 15 data is ready to share!

For those who don't know, Melotte 15 is an open star cluster located at the heart (literally) of the Heart Nebula (IC 1805) , in the constellation of Cassiopeia. It's a group of very young, supermassive stars, some up to 50 times larger than our Sun 😱, which use their energy to make the surrounding gas shine and sculpt those spectacular shapes within the nebula. We're talking about a cluster that's barely 1.5 million years old... a baby in cosmic terms.

Un procesado rapido de este precioso objeto.

What exactly have I uploaded?

• 307 RGB lights, so you can play with the processing and highlight gases and details.

• Raw images of the cluster and surrounding dust clouds.

• Observation metadata: exposure times, etc.

Everything is ready for anyone who wants to experiment, process, or just browse.

What comes next…

In future posts, I'll show you the construction process of the observatory I'm working on in my backyard, a project I began during these three weeks of August vacation. The idea is to have a permanent space to house the three telescopes under one roof, allowing me to work more comfortably and efficiently. I can tell you right away that it's been quite an adventure, but it's slowly taking shape.

Now I'd love to see what you do with this data. If you're up for processing it, share your versions or impressions in the comments or on social media. I'm sure everyone will come up with incredible results and different ways of looking at this little piece of the cosmos.

See you soon, with more skies and more concrete blocks! 😉