NGC7293 The Helix Nebula (niteman1946)

Image of the day 10/29/2013

NGC7293 The Helix Nebula

The Helix Nebula (Caldwell 63) is a large planetary nebula located in constellation Aquarius. Found by Karl Ludwig Harding, around 1824, this object is one of the closest (est. 700 LY) to the Earth of all the bright planetary nebulae. It is similar in appearance to the Ring Nebula, whose size, age and physical characteristics are similar also to the Dumbbell Nebula.

The Helix Nebula is an example of a planetary nebula formed at the end of a star's life. Gases from the star produce a pattern as if we are looking down a helix structure. The remnant central stellar core is destined to become a white dwarf star. Its observed glow is so energetic that it causes the previously expelled gases to brightly fluoresce.

The Helix Nebula was the first planetary nebula discovered to contain knots, which have now been detected in many nearby planetaries. These knots (an estimated 20,000) are radially symmetric and are described as "cometary", each containing bright cusps and tails. All extend away in a radial direction. Excluding the tails, they are roughly the size of our Solar system. (Source Wikipedia)

The image was captured with the Meade 12"LX200, using the Atik 383L+ mono at F6.56. Astronomik's 12nm Halpha, and OIII narrow band filters were used (no SII in this).

All subs were taken at 1x1 bin, -10C, and 10 minutes each.

Ha : 40 subs (6.67 hr) on Oct 9th and Oct 10th.

O3 : 23 subs (3.83 hr) on Oct 24th.

S2 : None.

Processing was done with PixInsight, following (for the most part) kayronjm's tutorial of Feb. 24th. Only Ha was used to develop the Luminance image. Only Ha and O3 were collected for the color mix. See below formula.

R = Ha

G = 0.50 Ha + 0.50 O3

B = O3

Very pumpkinesque for Halloween!

North is up (and west is to the right). This is a slight crop, a small amount of vignetting shows up in the corners.

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Status	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	6422654
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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Image of the day 10/29/2013

NGC7293 The Helix Nebula

Image of the day 10/29/2013

NGC7293 The Helix Nebula

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Image of the day 10/29/2013

NGC7293 The Helix Nebula

Image of the day 10/29/2013

NGC7293 The Helix Nebula

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