Helix Nebula ( NGC 7293, The Eye of God ) in Aquarius

[MikeODay]

The Helix Nebula ( NGC 7293, The Eye of God ) in the constellation Aquarius.

 

( click on image to see larger )

 

The visible remains of a star that died around 10,000 years ago, the Helix Nebula ( NGC 7293 ) is one of the closest and largest of the so-called planetary nebulae that are observable from Earth.

Situated in the same arm of the Milkyway galaxy as ourselves, the Helix Nebula is around 650 light years away, is growing at a rate of over 100,000 kms / hour  and is currently around 2.5 light years across.

...............

34 minutes (17 x 120 sec subs) unmodified DSLR from moderately light polluted skies up in the Blue Mountains, 100 kms west of Sydney - The moon is out now so I will have to wait a week or so to see if I can add to it to try to bring out more from the background.

Details:

RA 22h 30m 33.9s, Dec -20deg 44' 57.1"'
Skywatcher Quattro 10" f4 Newtonian
Skywatcher AZ Eq6 GT Mount
Orion auto guider - PHD2
Baader MPCC Mark 3 Coma Corrector
Nikon D5300 (unmodified)
Field of view (deg) ~ 1.35 x 0.90
long exp. noise reduction on
17 x 120 sec ISO800

Pixinsight & Photoshop
12 August 2016.

Links:

https://500px.com/MikeODay
http://photo.net/photos/MikeODay

[StargeezerTim]

Nice image and great write up!

[laudropb]

Lovely image and thanks for the informative write up.

[MikeODay]

Thanks guys, much appreciated.