The beautiful bright core region of NGC7293 is home to a dying, sun-like star whose—almost—circumstellar nebulous regions have been expanding and evolving during its final phase of stellar evolution. Affectionately called, “The Helix Nebula” and “God’s Eye”, the Planetary Nebula's structure is one of the most well studied and imaged celestial bodies in the night sky.

Exploring this target using narrowband imaging techniques utilising the emission lines of Hydrogen Alpha (Ha), Oxygen III (O-III) and Sulfur II (S-II); these specific segments of the visible spectrum reveal not just the broader and intensely strong knots and large-scale emission arcs of the inner core; it also makes it possible to discover several jets, many faint bipolar outflows causing bow-shaped filaments and bow shocks, as well as successive event-lead halos. 

Combining narrowband data with Red, Green and Blue (RGB) filter datasets (captured a month or two post the narrowband series) showcases the natural and softer colour tones of the inner nebulous regions of The Helix. Although minimal time was given to capturing RGB due to poor weather conditions, I plan to revisit this next season.

It has been a pleasure capturing NGC7293 and I’ve spent far too much time resolving it. As the clear nights progressed, the extra integration times has been both fortuitus and prosperous! To-date, I have not found an amateur image that fully resolves the most outer nebulous regions of The Helix Nebula - If one exists, please link me to it!
A paper tilted, “Discovery of A Halo Around The Helix Nebula NGC 7293 In The Wise All-Sky Survey” by Zhang et al proposes the existence of jets located north-east of the nebula; excitingly, the image I present here resolves not one but the existence of five jets!

As portion of time was spent capturing natural colour, RGB stars have been given priority over that of narrowband stars. This has added a colour-rich star field and the image has been presented cropped, albeit, with a wider field-of-view to honour this.