Narayan Mukkavilli
The Helix Nebula
This is an attempt to capture some of the fainter structures that surround the familiar main body of the Helix Nebula. This includes the "plumes" - the faint extensions to the northwest and southeast, the outer nebula, the so called outer ring, the northeast arc- familiarly known as the "eyebrow", the West outer ring, and hints of Bowshock 1. Unfortunately with this exposure its still a bit noisy around the faint
details- and there is no evidence of some of the even fainter structures such as Bowshock 2 and Meaburns Jet. Perhaps it was overly ambitious to hope to capture these.
This image represents over 24 hours of data collected over 2020 and 2021. To improve on this image I think I would need lots more data than the 23.5 hours in H alpha ( with a Baader 7 nm filter ) and 50 minutes in RGB (with a L extreme filter).
However I am calling a halt now due to some major issues with my optical train which I need to resolve before committing more time to this project. (poor star shapes caused by incorrect spacers)
So this is a place holder till such time as I can return to collect more and hopefully better quality data
Equipment:
EQ6/ ED 80/ William Optics 0.8 focal reducer/ Baader 7nm Halpha Filter / Optolong L Extreme Filter / QHY 183 mm
mono camera/ZWO ASI 183 MC Pro colour camera
Software:
NINA/PHD2/AstroPixel Processor/ Topaz Denoise AI/Photoshop CS6
The Helix Nebula
This is an attempt to capture some of the fainter structures that surround the familiar main body of the Helix Nebula. This includes the "plumes" - the faint extensions to the northwest and southeast, the outer nebula, the so called outer ring, the northeast arc- familiarly known as the "eyebrow", the West outer ring, and hints of Bowshock 1. Unfortunately with this exposure its still a bit noisy around the faint
details- and there is no evidence of some of the even fainter structures such as Bowshock 2 and Meaburns Jet. Perhaps it was overly ambitious to hope to capture these.
This image represents over 24 hours of data collected over 2020 and 2021. To improve on this image I think I would need lots more data than the 23.5 hours in H alpha ( with a Baader 7 nm filter ) and 50 minutes in RGB (with a L extreme filter).
However I am calling a halt now due to some major issues with my optical train which I need to resolve before committing more time to this project. (poor star shapes caused by incorrect spacers)
So this is a place holder till such time as I can return to collect more and hopefully better quality data
Equipment:
EQ6/ ED 80/ William Optics 0.8 focal reducer/ Baader 7nm Halpha Filter / Optolong L Extreme Filter / QHY 183 mm
mono camera/ZWO ASI 183 MC Pro colour camera
Software:
NINA/PHD2/AstroPixel Processor/ Topaz Denoise AI/Photoshop CS6