Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543)

[Shibby]

Here's my image of the Cat's Eye Nebula in Bi-Colour Hα/Oiii

The central nebula, very bright, was formed ~1000 years ago. The other nebulosity, much fainter was apparently ejected from the star previously every 1,500 years or so. The different age material then interacts to form the various shock waves & knots you can see.

To capture that bright, inner nebula, I took a series of just 10s exposures. The rest of the nebula required 10 minute exposures, so that gives an idea of the difference in brightness!

I struggled a bit with this one, as you can probably tell. Partly down to my lack of processing skills, partly down to the fact I was constantly chasing this into my light-polluted horizon for a few nights.

• Hα: 17x600s (R)
• Oiii: 17x600s (G+B)
• Atik 460ex
• SW MN190
• Orion 50mm guidescope + QHY5L-ii
• Stacking: DeepSkyStacker
• Processing: Photoshop

[PaulM]

Nice image

Observing this shows no hint of the wider nebulously so its interesting from the image to see just how far it extends from the central bright core