Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Aquarius (Aqr)  ·  Contains:  Helix Nebula  ·  NGC 7293
The Helix Nebula ... October 13, 2021, Patrick Prokop
The Helix Nebula ... October 13, 2021
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The Helix Nebula ... October 13, 2021

The Helix Nebula ... October 13, 2021, Patrick Prokop
The Helix Nebula ... October 13, 2021
Powered byPixInsight

The Helix Nebula ... October 13, 2021

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Description

This 'planetary' Nebula is sometimes called the "Eye of God" and is quite close to us being only around 665 light-years away. It is the result of a star near the end of its life with its outer shell being blown outward with the inner resultant star shrinking down to what is known as a 'white dwarf'. A white dwarf is extremely compressed matter so dense that it would be as if the mass of our sun would be compressed to the size of the earth. In comparison, a black hole is even denser with that mass compacted down to the size of 2-mile diameter ball! The observed glow of the central star is so energetic that it causes the previously expelled gases to brightly fluoresce.
The Helix nebula is low in the southern sky at midnight in mid-October. I took this image over several nights. I can only get a few hours of imaging per night due to its low elevation in the sky and the surrounding trees.
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The Helix Nebula ... October 13, 2021, Patrick Prokop

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