Images taken on my Vaonis Vespera II portable telescope in the New Forest. 949 images, each of 10 secs = total integration time of 2h 38min on 22 Mar 2026. Used Vaonis Dual Band Filter.

Per Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_Nebula
The Heart Nebula is an emission nebula, 7,500 light-years 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.

The Heart Nebula is made up of ionized hydrogen, oxygen and sulfur gasses, which are responsible for the rich reds, blue and orange colors seen in images. The nebula also spans almost 2 degrees in the sky, covering an area four times that of the diameter of the full moon.

The open cluster of stars at the centre, also known as Melotte 15, contains a few bright stars nearly 50 times the mass of the Sun.