The "Eye of God" Nebula - NGC 7293

[MarsG76]

Hi All,

I'm sharing my latest image taken with the new camera... The Helix Nebula (NGC 7293), also known as the "Eye of God" is a planetary nebula located in the constellation Aquarius. One of the closest planetary nebulae to Earth being 655 light years distant.

This image was exposed through a 8" SCT at 1280mm focal length (f6.3) using a QHY268M astro camera, tracked and autoguided on a Hypertuned CGEM mount.

The total exposure time spent on this image was 19 hours and 5 minutes worth of H-Alpha, OIII, SII and H-Beta subs.

This image is mostly based on the HOO color palette but as a bit of difference and an experiment, I mixed in SII to the red channel and H-Beta to the blue channel before color balancing the image to the photo shown.

Clear Skies,
MG

 

[Sunshine]

A wonderful image with boat loads of detail! is this also known as the Iris nebula? 

[tooth_dr]

12 hours ago, MarsG76 said:

Hi All,

I'm sharing my latest image taken with the new camera... The Helix Nebula (NGC 7293), also known as the "Eye of God" is a planetary nebula located in the constellation Aquarius. One of the closest planetary nebulae to Earth being 655 light years distant.

This image was exposed through a 8" SCT at 1280mm focal length (f6.3) using a QHY268M astro camera, tracked and autoguided on a Hypertuned CGEM mount.

The total exposure time spent on this image was 19 hours and 5 minutes worth of H-Alpha, OIII, SII and H-Beta subs.

This image is mostly based on the HOO color palette but as a bit of difference and an experiment, I mixed in SII to the red channel and H-Beta to the blue channel before color balancing the image to the photo shown.

Clear Skies,
MG

 

Fantastic Mariusz, such a great example. 

[assouptro]

Wonderful image! 
I love it! 
thank you for sharing 

Bryan 

[newbie alert]

12 hours ago, Sunshine said:

A wonderful image with boat loads of detail! is this also known as the Iris nebula? 

Agreed, fantastic image but the iris is a different target  .. ngc 7023

[MarsG76]

On 20/08/2021 at 09:20, Sunshine said:

A wonderful image with boat loads of detail! is this also known as the Iris nebula? 

As stated above... the Iris nebula is a different object...

[Rodd]

A tough target.  It looks great.  I think maybe a slight brightness reduction ( selective curve) might enhance dynamic range and color just a big in the interior. Probably nock the background down a bit and bring out the shells as well. But I am on a very bright screen so take if for what it’s worth ( maybe nothing!)

Edited August 25, 2021 by Rodd

[alan potts]

A lovely image there. I did try this from here a couple of years ago but it is rather low in the sky, as good as a result that I got it does not compare with your fine effort.

Alan

[Hugues]

A very beautiful image ! inspiring work.

[MarsG76]

Thank you for all of the great feed back.... @Rodd I experimented with various levels on a few screens and on my devices this seemed to give me the best balance between too little contrast and image brightness... different monitors will show different levels.. I wish I could calibrate my monitors & devices....

[Rodd]

12 minutes ago, MarsG76 said:

Thank you for all of the great feed back.... @Rodd I experimented with various levels on a few screens and on my devices this seemed to give me the best balance between too little contrast and image brightness... different monitors will show different levels.. I wish I could calibrate my monitors & devices....

Don't get me started on monitors....their almost as bad as printing!  I have 4 monitors including an Iphone, and images look drastically different on them all.  There is one truism when it comes to images and monitors that I have noticed.  Great images look great on every screen.  Rarely do I feel an image of mine meets that parameter (never actually).