IC 1805 is known as the Heart Nebula. It is7,500 light-years from Earth in the Perseus arm of the galaxy. Melotte-15 is the star cluster at the heart of the Heart Nebula. It is an OB association of very young, hot, blue supergiant stars that is only 1.5 million years old. Fierce stellar winds from this cluster have blown the enormous bubble within the parent HII region that is the Heart Nebula. The large triangular dust cloud on the bottom left side of the image is the notch in the top of the heart. The stellar winds from Melottte-15 have also sculpted dust clouds in this region of the nebula into numerous interesting V-shaped ridges and other shapes, within which smaller stars are still forming. 

Telescope: Celestron Compustar C14.

Exposures: HaRGB=450:100:100:100 minutes=12 hours 30 minutes total exposure at f/8.3. 

This image was selected as an Astronomy Picture of the Day on Astronomy.com .