Helix Nebula (NGC7293) in HaLRGB

[glowingturnip]

This one has been on my bucket list for ages, I'm well pleased to get this.  The advantage of having a southerly site I guess.

24x600s Ha, 15x240s L, R, G & B all 1x1 binned, darks, flats and bias, equipment as per sig, Pixinxight.

 

The Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) is a large planetary nebula located in the constellation Aquarius. It is one of the closest planetary nebulae to the Earth at an estimated distance is about 700 light-years. 

It was formed by an intermediate to low-mass star, which shed its outer layers near the end of its evolution.  The remnant central stellar core is destined to become a white dwarf star. The observed glow of the central star is so energetic that it causes the previously expelled gases to brightly fluoresce.

A fun fact - if you zoom in on Flickr you can see hundreds of comet-like streaks at the inner edge of the red ring that point towards the middle - well the blob at the head of *each* one of those is (very) roughly the size of our whole solar system !

 

Again, just for fun, here was my first attempt from a few years back, with an unmodded DSLR.  Which one do you prefer ?

 

Hope you enjoy,  comments and cc welcome,

 

Cheers,

Stuart

[groberts]

Very nice, congratulations.

I presume I'm just south of you then between Reigate & Gatwick and would have no chance of imaging this.   

[glowingturnip]

ahh no, having the site in southern Spain does help  :-)

[groberts]

Ah missed that!