Helix Nebula - when everything goes wrong but you still like it (Rob Calfee)

Celestial hemisphere: Southern · Constellation: Aquarius (Aqr) · Contains: Helix Nebula · NGC 7293 · PK036-57.1

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Helix Nebula - when everything goes wrong but you still like it

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Helix Nebula - when everything goes wrong but you still like it

OMG. After waiting through 6 days of rain I went out with the goal last night of grabbing the Helix Nebula. But the universe had other plans. Clouds snuck in multiple times (when they weren't supposed to), there were guiding issues, failed experimentation with long exposures, a neighbor's car angled their headlights right at the telescope for a good long while, the initial livestack failed so I switched to autorun, a pack of coyotes breathing hard galloping hard down the street scared the bejeebus out of me, an owl must've thought my head was some furry animal and swooped down on me not once, but twice, I discovered phosphorene grubs in my grass like tiny stars on the ground (ugly critters)... You name it. It happened. Dogs and Cats living together, mass hysteria (guess what line this movie came from.) After seeing all of your Helix pics I so wanted to target it. I plotted on Skytools4 how I could get max SNR as it was low on the horizon and asked for permission to move my telescope into a neighbors yard for a clearer view over the trees to the south to make sure I wasn't blocked during the run. In the end, I had 4 10-minute exposures I could use. Oy. This is the result. I don't like the quality but I love this nebula and I love pushing myself to learn more. So I'm satisfied with the result in the end, even if it is subpar. And I had some great hours under the stars. Can't beat it with a stick.

Cheers!
Rob

PS. Be careful not to step on the bloated stars.

North Carolina Astronomers
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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	5092411
PixInsight job	LSRUF89IFZBNVMYQRZWU1U966LQ3JDDM
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	22h29m55s.80
RA (top/left)	22h31m44s.24
RA (top/right)	22h29m04s.81
RA (bottom/right)	22h28m07s.90
RA (bottom/left)	22h30m47s.40

Dec (center)	-20°53′58″.7
Dec (top/left)	-20°42′33″.10
Dec (top/right)	-20°28′49″.6
Dec (bottom/right)	-21°05′18″.9
Dec (bottom/left)	-21°19′06″.2

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Helix Nebula - when everything goes wrong but you still like it

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Helix Nebula - when everything goes wrong but you still like it

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