[image description: a digital illustration of an interior scene, focusing on a salt lamp sitting on a windowsill and illuminating the bowls, books, and bedspreads around it]
Peer into Cassiopeia’s heart Once the sky grows a little darker still, celebrate Valentine’s Day with a view of the stunning red Heart Nebula in Cassiopeia. The constellation sits to the upper left of the Little Dipper in the north this evening. The Heart Nebula, also cataloged as IC 1805, is a magnitude 6.5 emission nebula just under 5° east-southeast of magnitude 3.4 Epsilon (ε) Cassiopeiae. It’s best viewed with a larger (8-inch or more) telescope, though you can use low or high magnification to bring out different aspects of its structure. A nebula filter will further enhance the view. Look particularly for NGC 896, a bright knot of glowing gas and dust that sits southwest of the Heart proper and is a little easier to see than the larger, fainter nebula. You can also find NGC 1027, a 7th-magnitude star cluster, just over 1° east of the Heart.
