NGC 6543 - Cat's Eye Nebula.

[Taman]

Located in Draco (The Dragon). The dying star at the centre of this planetary nebula is losing its mass in a series of pulsed explosions.

I found this a tricky object to image and process. It is a small target, with a very bright core and faint outer structure. I decided to do two images, one nearly full frame at f6.3 and the other, re-sampled and cropped to the equivalent of f10. There is a slight colour variation, as both images were processed separately. 

I included the small galaxy NGC 6552 in the zoomed image, as this is also a fascinating object.

Processed with DeepSkyStacker, Siril and Photoshop CS6.

43 x 300s, with darks, flats and dark flats. Total exposure time 3 hours 35 minutes.

C11 at f6.3, ZWO ASI294Mc Pro (gain 126, temp -12C), Optolong L-Pro light pollution filter. 

Edited May 19, 2020 by Taman

[MarkAR]

Superb image. Also check out the barred ring galaxy to the right.

[Taman]

5 minutes ago, MarkAR said:

Superb image. Also check out the barred ring galaxy to the right.

Thank you. Yes, that little galaxy is very interesting, I've not seen anything like it before.