NGC 7293 - Helix Nebula (Bruce Rohrlach)

Celestial hemisphere: Southern · Constellation: Aquarius (Aqr) · Contains: Helix nebula · NGC 7293

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NGC 7293 - Helix Nebula

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NGC 7293 - Helix Nebula

The Helix nebula imaged 10 October 2017 with an 8 inch Skywatcher Newtonian f5 and a Nikon D610 at prime focus (stack of 142 images at 15 secs exposure and ISO4000; total exposure of 35.5 minutes).

The Helix Nebula - NGC 7293 - in Aquarius is one of the closest planetary nebulas to earth at around 650 light years. Known in pop culture as the ‘Eye of God’ or the ‘Eye of Sauron’, it was named for the appearance of looking down a helix. A remnant central star (which you can see in the image) has quite recently (around 10,600 years ago) shed its outer layers as it runs out of helium fuel to power stellar fusion reactions. The remnant stellar central core is now a white dwarf with a radius about the size of the earth but a mass mostly the same as the original star. Each ‘teaspoon’ of the white dwarf would weigh around 15 tonnes. Expansion of the outer expelled gas disk is around 40 km/sec whilst expansion of gases in the inner disk is around 32 km/sec. I'll have to add more exposure to this in due course to further intensify the colour and resolution.

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	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
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This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
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This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
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Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

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Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
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Status	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	1854631
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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NGC 7293 - Helix Nebula

NGC 7293 - Helix Nebula

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NGC 7293 - Helix Nebula

NGC 7293 - Helix Nebula

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