Target Details
Melotte-15 is a star cluster which is considered to be the heart of the Heart Nebula (IC 1805). It is an OB association of extremely hot blue supergiant stars that is only around 1.5 million years old. These stars are very short lived and as a result tend to not travel very far from where they are formed during their life. They are typically a source of large amounts of ultraviolet radiation.

Extreme stellar winds from this cluster have blown the gas in the HII nebula which it resides to form the shape of the heart nebula.

Capture Details
Data captured 11 & 12 December, 2017.
45x 3 minute exposures with Ha filter.
90x 3 minute exposures with Sii filter.
84x 2 minute exposure with Oiii filter.

Equipment Details
Skywatcher Quattro 200 CF
NEQ6 Pro
Starlight Xpress SX-674 Mono
Skywatcher ST-80
QHY5L-II

Processing Details
This image was processed in Pixinsight & Lightroom.

Calibration and Stacking in Pixinsight using Batch PreProcessing
Dynamic Crop - To remove black edges & integration artifacts. (Each Channel)
Automatic Background Extraction - To remove gradients. (Each Channel)
Deconvolution - To bring out some fine detail & tighten stars, 50 iterations. (Each Channel)
Multiscale Linear Transform - Noise reduction. (Each Channel)
Histogram Transformation - To stretch the image and bring out the data, stars imported from Masked Stretch Clone. (Each Channel)
TVGDenoise - Some additional noise reduction, rangemask in place.
SHO-AIP Script - To combine the channels using the SHO Palette.
Curves Transformation - Desaturate with Magenta mask in place.
Curves Transformation - Reduce Green with Green mask in place.
Curves Transformation - Increase Red with Yellow mask in place.
Curves Transformation - To clip blacks slightly.
UnsharpMask - To sharpen with mask in place to exclude stars & background.
Curves Transformation - To boost contrast.
Dark Structure Enhance - To boost detail in dark areas.
Curves Transformation - To boost contrast further.
Curves Transformation - To boost saturation.
TVGDenoise - Some additional noise reduction, rangemask in place.

Export as JPEG and import into Lightroom.
Contrast Boost (+25)
Boost Vibrance (+25)
Adjust Yellow Saturation (-15)
Adjust Blue Saturation (+15)

Export final JPEG for upload.