The Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) is a large planetary nebula located in the constellation Aquarius. It is one of the closest planetary nebulae to the Earth at an estimated distance is about 700 light-years.
It was formed by an intermediate to low-mass star, which shed its outer layers near the end of its evolution. The remnant central stellar core is destined to become a white dwarf star. The observed glow of the central star is so energetic that it causes the previously expelled gases to brightly fluoresce.
A fun fact - if you look closely you can see hundreds of comet-like streaks at the inner edge of the red ring that point towards the middle - well the blob at the head of each one of those is (very) roughly the size of our whole solar system !
You might recognize it from a picture on the wall of the apartment in the Big Bang Theory TV show. (My favorite)
Taken in bicolour narrowband HOO, Hydrogen alpha mapped to red and Oxygen III mapped to green and blue.
45x180s Ha + 40x180s OIII exposures. Shot from my backyard in Fl using my ES127 telescope on Nov 7/8th 2021, QHY163M camera and narrowband filters. Processed in Pixinsight. Enjoy!
This was a difficult target for me because it was between trees and power lines to the south. Glad it's done!
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