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Helix Nebula, El Ojo de Dios (Eye of God) (Caldwell 63, NGC 7293). From my back garden in Austin, Texas 2024-08-09,12,& 13. Over 8 hours integration time with 100 5' exposures stacked.
WO RedCat 250/51mm, L-Ultimate dual NB filter, ASI533 MC camera, ASIAIR Plus controller, SW AZ-EQ5 mount.
Processed in PixInsight: drizzle stacked then SPCC, Auto DBE, RC-Astro Noise/Blur/StarXTerminator plugins, GHS stretch, curves LHE, HDRMS, & MLT sharpening. Final exp and crop in PS
The Helix is a tube-shaped planetary nebula, an expanding shell of gas around a dying star. It lies in the constellation Aquarius and it is one of the closest planetary nebulae to Earth.
A planetary nebula occurs when a sun-like star is reaching the end of its life. Typically, the star will have a core made of carbon, surrounded by a shell of helium (in the process of fusing into carbon), and outer layers of mostly Hydrogen. The fusing Helium will shrink and heat the core, attempting to fuse the carbon into heavier elements, but the temperature and pressure will never be great enough in a star of this (relatively low) mass to fuse the carbon. As a result, this very hot carbon core and helium shell drive off the outer layers of hydrogen. As these outer layers are driven off by the intense heat of the core, they form what is called a planetary nebula, that is visible as a shell of glowing gas surrounding a very hot central star. (Note that the term "planetary" has nothing to do with planets - they are called planetary because in early telescopes they appeared to be tiny fuzzy disks that reminded observers of planets!)
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Telescope Sky-Watcher 150mm f/8
EQ 3-2 OnStep
52x30" exposure on Canon T1i Mod
The Helix Nebula is an example of a planetary nebula, formed by an intermediate to low-mass star, which sheds its outer layers near the end of its evolution. Gases from the star in the surrounding space appear, from our vantage point, as if we are looking down a helix structure. The remnant central stellar core, known as a planetary nebula nucleus, 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.
The Helix Nebula in the constellation of Aquarius lies about 700 light-years away, spanning about 2.5 light-years.
7h5m total integration (R,G 15 subs, B 14, Ha 23 bin2, OIII 18 bin2). Alcalalí, Spain 19-23/8/2017.
APM TMB 152 F8 LZOS, 10 Micron GM2000HPS, QSI6120wsg8
The “ Eye of God” or The Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) is a planetary nebula located in the constellation Aquarius, at about 650 light years from the Earth. Discovered by Karl Ludwig Harding in the early 19th century, Helix is one of the closest of all the bright planetary nebulae. The central star of the Nebula, a white dwarf remnant of the star that exploded about 10,000–12,000 years ago, gives the resemblance of an eye. When a star like the Sun runs out of fuel, it expands and its outer layers puff off, and then the core of the star shrinks. This phase is known as a "planetary nebula," and astronomers expect our Sun will experience this in about 5 billion years. The blue-green glow in the centre of the Helix comes from oxygen atoms shining under effects of the intense ultraviolet radiation of the 120 000 degree Celsius central star and the hot gas. Further out from the star and beyond the ring of knots, the red colour from hydrogen and nitrogen is more prominent.
Taken from Savannah Skies Observatory using an SBIG STL-6303 camera and 33-cm RCOS telescope on a Software Bisque PME Mount.
The Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) in the constellation Aquarius. This is a 26 minute exposure (26 x 1 minute) at ISO 3200, low on the horizon for me, so image quality is not that good, was toward the end of the night and never attempted to image it before.
The Helix Nebula , NGC 7293, is a large planetary nebula in Aquarius
It is one of the closest plenary nebula's to earth.
About the Image:
10" Orion Astrograph
Celestron CGem DX
Canon60Da
Guiding SSAG & PHD
Acquisition: Nebulosity
Processed with PixInsight & PhotoShopCC
71 Minutes (9x 180Sec: 27 Min + 10 Darks / 11x 240Sec: 44Min + 10 Darks)
ISO800
100 Bias Frames
4 August 2013 / Magalies Mountain Sanctuary, South Africa
The “ Eye of God” or The Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) is a planetary nebula located in the constellation Aquarius, at about 650 light years from the Earth. Discovered by Karl Ludwig Harding in the early 19th century, Helix is one of the closest of all the bright planetary nebulae. The central star of the Nebula, a white dwarf remnant of the star that exploded about 10,000–12,000 years ago, gives the resemblance of an eye. When a star like the Sun runs out of fuel, it expands and its outer layers puff off, and then the core of the star shrinks. This phase is known as a "planetary nebula," and astronomers expect our Sun will experience this in about 5 billion years. The blue-green glow in the centre of the Helix comes from oxygen atoms shining under effects of the intense ultraviolet radiation of the 120 000 degree Celsius central star and the hot gas. Further out from the star and beyond the ring of knots, the red colour from hydrogen and nitrogen is more prominent.
The helix nebula is a planetary nebula in the constellation Aquarius.
At a distance of 700 ly, it is approximately 11,000 years old.
The intriguing helix Nebula. False color
The latest data set comes from telescope live using their remarkable 1 m telescope. 2X 10 minutes frames each S, H and O.
CHI-3 is an ASA 1000, a 1-m telescope with a Ritchey Chretien design, situated in the Rio Hurtado valley, Chile. It is equipped with a set of Astrodon astrophotography filters.
FLI PL16803
Data acquired 8/2020 and 7/21
Nebulosa planetaria - somma di 20 scatti da 5 minuti a 800 ISO. Strumenti: Canon Eos 350D mod.; Schmidt-Newton Meade 203, focale 812, 7 dark, 25 flat. Località: Spinello(Fc). Data: 17/09/2009
The Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) is a planetary nebula created by a dying star shedding its outer dusty layers into space which in turn are hit by the star's core ultraviolet radiation. Planetary nebulae are actually the remains of stars that once looked a lot like our sun. The Helix Nebula is approximately 650 light years away in the constellation of Aquarius
I took this image over two sessions using my William Optics FLT91 APO refractor, 68III 1.0x flattener, ZWO ASI2600MC Pro colour camera, Optolong L-Ultimate narrowband (3nm, Ha, Oiii) filter on a ZWO AM5 mount with ASIAIr Plus. Total of 3h35m integration time.
Post-Processed in PixInsight and Affinity Photo 2.
More acquisition details here: astrob.in/mi2f2u/B/
Narrowband image with Hydrogen alpha filter of the planetary nebula nearest to Earth.
In this image, nuclear fusion has ceased in the central star as the available fuel has run out and the outer layers of the star have been shrugged off.
Gases in the envelope layers glow under the glare of the intense UV light radiating from the White Dwarf remnant of the central star.
Its thought that the NE outer rim (lower right) is glowing more brightly as it encounters interstellar gas and the friction of the collision causes heating.
Within the "eye" of the nebula are hundreds of "comet" shaped features that all point back to the central star - astronomers are uncertain if these represent gas outflows or UV photodissociation of gas.
The central star exploded 10600 years ago - as worked out by reversing the gas flow velocities.
These gigantic, tadpole-shaped objects are probably the result of a dying star's last gasps. Dubbed "cometary knots" because their glowing heads and gossamer tails resemble comets, the gaseous objects probably were formed during a star's final stages of life.
Hubble astronomer C. Robert O'Dell and graduate student Kerry P. Handron of Rice University in Houston, Texas discovered thousands of these knots with the Hubble Space Telescope while exploring the Helix nebula, the closest planetary nebula to Earth at 450 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius. Although ground-based telescopes have revealed such objects, astronomers have never seen so many of them. The most visible knots all lie along the inner edge of the doomed star's ring, trillions of miles away from the star's nucleus. Although these gaseous knots appear small, they're actually huge. Each gaseous head is at least twice the size of our solar system; each tail stretches for 100 billion miles, about 1,000 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun. Astronomers theorize that the doomed star spews hot, lower-density gas from its surface, which collides with cooler, higher-density gas that had been ejected 10,000 years before. The crash fragments the smooth cloud surrounding the star into smaller, denser finger-like droplets, like dripping paint. This image was taken in August, 1994 with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. The red light depicts nitrogen emission ([NII] 6584A); green, hydrogen (H-alpha, 6563A); and blue, oxygen (5007A).
Credit: Robert O'Dell, Kerry P. Handron (Rice University) and NASA/ESA
Image Number: PR96-13B
Date: August 1, 1994
This colour-composite image of the Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) was created from images obtained using the Wide Field Imager (WFI), an astronomical camera attached to the 2.2-metre Max-Planck Society/ESO telescope at the La Silla observatory in Chile. The blue-green glow in the centre of the Helix comes from oxygen atoms shining under effects of the intense ultraviolet radiation of the 120 000 degree Celsius central star and the hot gas. Further out from the star and beyond the ring of knots, the red colour from hydrogen and nitrogen is more prominent. A careful look at the central part of this object reveals not only the knots, but also many remote galaxies seen right through the thinly spread glowing gas.This image was created from images through blue, green and red filters and the total exposure times were 12 minutes, 9 minutes and 7 minutes respectively.
NGC7293
Observatori Astronòmic de l'Institut d'Alcarràs.
Telescop: Meade LX200 8" f10.
CCD Sbig ST9.
9 lights, 100s.
50 darks.
50 flats.
Our media loves to hype up a meteor shower, and the 2021 Eta Aquariids Meteor Shower was as hyped here in Australia as it’s ever been. The Eta Aquariids doesn’t perform as well in the Southern Hemisphere as it does near the equator and further north, but I headed south last Friday night anyway, desperate to get back under the stars. My cameras shot off 380 photos over the 1.5 hours I was on Seven Mile Beach near Gerroa, Australia. For that effort and the 220-odd kilometre round-trip, I ended up with only four photos showing meteors. One of those turned out not to be an Eta Aquariid member, so my count for this famed shower was three meteors.
The bright green streak of light in this photo is the best of the four meteors that I photographed, and its position in the sky near Jupiter at least adds another point of interest. The Moon had risen only a few minutes before the photo, its golden glow looking diffused due to the light sea fog that hung around for my visit.
My photo for today is a single-frame image that I shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.0, using an exposure time of 8.0 seconds @ ISO 6400.
Many of the Caldwell objects are millions of light-years distant, but Caldwell 63 is right in our cosmic neighborhood — only about 650 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius. Also cataloged as NGC 7293, Caldwell 63 is commonly called the Helix Nebula. It is a planetary nebula of gigantic proportions, with its bright ring stretching across nearly 3 light-years and dimmer, outer features extending even farther. Planetary nebulae like this one have no actual connection to planets but are called that because many of them have disk-like shapes that look like planets when viewed through small telescopes. They are produced as a medium-mass star dies and sloughs off its outer gaseous layers. These layers are expelled into space at astonishing speeds and glow from the energy given off by the dying star. The Helix Nebula is one of the closest planetary nebulae to Earth, giving scientists a detailed look at this type of stellar demise.
Because it is so close, the Helix Nebula appears to be nearly half the width of the full moon. So to capture this view, Hubble astronomers had to take several exposures using the Advanced Camera for Surveys, which were then combined with the wide view of the Mosaic Camera on the National Science Foundation’s 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. The colors in the image correspond to glowing oxygen (blue) and hydrogen and nitrogen (red).
Through Hubble’s observations of the nebula, scientists have made some startling discoveries. It seems that the Helix Nebula isn’t doughnut-shaped, as it appears. Instead it consists of two disks that are nearly perpendicular to each other — the inner part (the blue region in Hubble’s image) is “tipped” relative to the outer ring. Hubble has also imaged comet-like tendrils that form a pattern around the central star like the spokes on a wagon wheel. While these comet-like features were not a new discovery, Hubble has revealed that the gaseous knots likely result from a collision between gases. The dying star spews hot gas from its surface, which crashes into the cooler gas that it ejected 10,000 years before. Eventually the knots will dissipate into the cold blackness of interstellar space.
Discovered by German astronomer Karl Ludwig Harding in 1823, the Helix Nebula is a favorite target for amateur astronomers. It is best viewed in the early spring from the Southern Hemisphere, but can be found low in the autumn sky from the Northern Hemisphere. With a magnitude of 7.3, it can be seen with a small telescope or even binoculars under dark skies. A nebula filter will increase the contrast and offer even better views.
For more information about Hubble’s observations of Caldwell 63, see:
hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2003/news-2003-11.h...
Credit: NASA, NOAO, ESA, the Hubble Helix Nebula Team, M. Meixner (STScI), and T.A. Rector (NRAO)
For Hubble's Caldwell catalog website and information on how to find these objects in the night sky, visit:
Integrated flux nebulae are relatively rich in the area. North is at top, and east to the left.
equipment: Sigma 105mmF1.4 Art and EOS 6D-SP4, modified by Seo-san on ZWO AM5 equatorial mount on the genuine tripod with counter weight 4.8kg, autoguided with Fujinon 1:2.8/75mm C-Mount Lens, ZWO ASI 120MM-mini, and PHD2 Guiding
exposure: 4 times x 900 seconds, 4 x 240 sec, and 4 x 60 seconds at ISO 1,600 and f/3.2
site: 2,434m above sea level at lat. 24 39 52 south and long. 70 16 11 west near Cerro Armazones in Sierra Vicuña Mackenna in Coast Range of Chile
Ambient temperature was around 10 degrees Celsius or 34 degrees Fahrenheit. Wind was mild. Sky was dark, and SQML reached 21.83 at the night.
i tried different time of exposition to see how long i can tracked with the minitracklx. The final image is about 23 minutes of signal.
Nikon d90 super uv ir cut, tamron 70-300 at 220mm f5.6 iso 2000
This infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the Helix nebula, a cosmic starlet often photographed by amateur astronomers for its vivid colors and eerie resemblance to a giant eye. ..The nebula, located about 700 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius, belongs to a class of objects called planetary nebulae. Discovered in the 18th century, these cosmic butterflies were named for their resemblance to gas-giant planets. ..Planetary nebulae are actually the remains of stars that once looked a lot like our sun. .When sun-like stars die, they puff out their outer gaseous layers. These layers are heated by the hot core of the dead star, called a white dwarf, and shine with infrared and visible-light colors. Our own sun will blossom into a planetary nebula when it dies in about five billion years. ..In Spitzer's infrared view of the Helix nebula, the eye looks more like that of a green monster's. Infrared light from the outer gaseous layers is represented in blues and greens. The white dwarf is visible as a tiny white dot in the center of the picture. The red color in the middle of the eye denotes the final layers of gas blown out when the star died. ..The brighter red circle in the very center is the glow of a dusty disk circling the white dwarf (the disk itself is too small to be resolved). This dust, discovered by Spitzer's infrared heat-seeking vision, was most likely kicked up by comets that survived the death of their star. Before the star died, its comets and possibly planets would have orbited the star in an orderly fashion. But when the star blew off its outer layers, the icy bodies and outer planets would have been tossed about and into each other, resulting in an ongoing cosmic dust storm. Any inner planets in the system would have burned up or been swallowed as their dying star expanded. ..The Helix nebula is one of only a few dead-star systems in which evidence for comet survivors has been found. ..This image is made up of data from Spi
Captured over 5 nights from my backyard observatory in Western Michigan, NGC7293 known as The Helix Nebula and it's nickname "The Eye Of God" using RGB and H-Alpha filters. At barely 25 degrees above the southern horizon from my location the conditions for shooting this lovely planetary nebula are far from optimum. Nevertherless I felt the end result was more than satisfactory using the tiny TMB92SS 3.6" refractor, the image you see here is a mere 22% crop of the original full frame.
Total Exposure time 7 hours
Location: Downunder Observatory, Fremont MI
Date of Shoot Nov 29, Dec 3, 5 6 and 13th 2012
All exposures unbinned
H-Alpha 3nm 8 x 30 min
RGB 4 x 15 min each
Camera: QHY9M monochrome CCD cooled to -30C www.astrofactors.com
Optics: Thomas M. Back TMB 92SS F5.5 APO Refractor
Mount: Paramount GT-1100S German Equatorial Mount (with MKS 4000)
Image Aquisition Maxim DL
Stacking and Calibrating: CCDStack
Registration of images in Registar
Post Processing Photoshop CS5
Star Spikes PRO2
What are we looking at?
700 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius lies the Helix Nebula. The Helix is a planetary nebula which are very short-lived structures that surround stars (similar to our own sun) for a brief period near the end of their lives.
As a low-mass main-sequence star burns through its stores of hydrogen, it begins fusing heavier elements. First, it begins fusing helium and during this phase, the pressures exerted outwards from the core overwhelm the ability of gravity to hold on to lighter material near the star's surface. The outer layers of the stars get puffed out by the core, like a balloon expanding. This is called the "Red Giant" phase. When the helium supply runs low, the star then begins fusing lithium. It repeats this cycle until the star's core is mostly carbon. With each successively heavier element, the temperatures and pressures grow until the the material outside of the core is simply expelled out into space. The molecules in the gaseous cloud are irradiated by the extreme temperatures of the star's core and the material glows like the gas in a fluorescent light. These cosmic fluorescent lightbulbs are clearly visible in the eyepiece of a quality telescope.
ESO's Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) has captured this unusual view of the Helix Nebula (NGC 7293), a planetary nebula located 700 light-years away. The coloured picture was created from images taken through Y, J and K infrared filters. While bringing to light a rich background of stars and galaxies, the telescope's infrared vision also reveals strands of cold nebular gas that are mostly obscured in visible images of the Helix.
Also known as the “Eye of God” this large planetary nebula is located in the constellation Aquarius. Although not discovered (or reported) until 1824 this object can be seen under dark skies as a hazy circle even when using small binoculars.
Photographed over three nights from a very light polluted section of my sky using a 5” aperture refractor telescope and a ZWO ASI178MM-Cool camera. Four hours and forty-six minutes of exposure through a narrow-band hydrogen-alpha filter (55 x 4m plus 33 x 2m).
Image capture was performed using Sequence Generator Pro with post processing done in PixInsight (image registration, integration, and initial adjustments) and Photoshop CC2015.
This photo is best seen in the Flickr light box or at full size (1828 x 1148 pixels).
All rights reserved.
Dates: Sept. 19, 2022 · Sept. 21, 2022
Integration: 5h 30′
Frames:
Chroma H-alpha 3nm Bandpass 50 mm: 33×300″(2h 45′) bin 1×1
Chroma Lum 50 mm: 30×60″(30′) bin 1×1
Chroma OIII 3nm Bandpass 50 mm: 24×300″(2h) bin 1×1
Chroma SII 3nm Bandpass 50 mm: 3×300″(15′) bin 1×1
Equipment:
Telescope: TEC140
Mount: Astro-Physics 1100GTO
Camera: ASI6200MM
NGC-7293 The Helix Planetary Nebula in Aquarius.The "Eye of God" a wide field shot!.The Helix Nebula, aka " The Eye of God" also known as The Helix, or NGC 7293, is a large planetary nebula (PN) located in the constellation Aquarius..Discovered by Karl Ludwig Harding, likely before 1824, this object is one of the closest to the Earth of all the bright planetary nebulae. This is a.dying star blowing off it's outer atmosphere! Based on recent measured expansion rates this Planetary Nebula is about 10,600 years old. The central star is destined to become a white dwarf..The estimated distance is about 215 parsecs (700 light-years). It is similar in appearance to the Cat's Eye Nebula and the Ring Nebula, whose size,.age, and physical characteristics are similar to the Dumbbell Nebula, varying only in its relative proximity and the appearance from the equatorial.viewing angle..Modified Canon Rebel Xsi & 5.5 inch Newtonian Reflector, ISO 1600, for 180 minutes(3 hours). 45 x 4 minute subs, Calibrated & Stacked in Nebulosity, Processed in Maxim DL, & PS Camera Raw 2015, its not too bad for a 5" scope and sitting so low on the Horizon for us in Ohio.
Comet-like tendrils cluster along the inner rim of the nebula’s reddish outer gas ring. This composite picture is a seamless blend of Hubble’s ultra-sharp images taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys combined with the wide view of the Mosaic Camera on the National Science Foundation's 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory.
Credit: NASA, NOAO, ESA, the Hubble Helix Nebula Team, M. Meixner (STScI), and T.A. Rector (NRAO)
For Hubble's Caldwell catalog website and information on how to find these objects in the night sky, visit:
The Helix Nebula, also known as The Helix, NGC 7293, is a large planetary nebula (PN) located in the constellation Aquarius. Discovered by Karl Ludwig Harding, probably before 1824, this object is one of the closest to the Earth of all the bright planetary nebulae.[7] The estimated distance is about 215 parsecs or 700 light-years. It is similar in appearance to the Cat's Eye Nebula and the Ring Nebula, whose size, age, and physical characteristics are similar to the Dumbbell Nebula, varying only in its relative proximity and the appearance from the equatorial viewing angle. The Helix Nebula has sometimes been referred to as the "Eye of God" in pop culture.
This planetary nebula is one of the closest nebula to Earth. Its distance is about 650 ly from Earth. This beautiful nebula is produced by death of a star like our Sun in size. Sometimes, its called “Eye of God” or “Eye of Sauron” like in Lord of the Ring movie. Gear Setup: William Optics 71 APO Zenithstar + F/F, iOptron iEQ 30pro unguided, Acquisition by APT, 60 x 30 sec subs @ 0 degree, 20 Darks, 20 Flats, 20 Bias. Total exposure 30 minutes @ 15 degree over horizon over a light polluted area (Not great for imaging condition). Stacked by DSS and processed by PS 2020 CC, photo is cropped.
In images, the Helix Nebula — a gaseous envelope ejected by a dying, Sun-like star — resembles a colorful donut. But Hubble Space Telescope observations show that the Helix's structure is much more complex, consisting of two disks nearly perpendicular to each other.
Using Hubble's data of the Helix, astronomers created a three-dimensional model showing the two disks.
Astronomers think the disks formed during two separate epochs of mass loss by the dying star. The inner disk was formed about 6,600 years ago; the outer ring, about 12,000 years ago. The inner disk is expanding slightly faster than the outer disk.
For more information, visit: hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2004/news-2004-32.html
Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)
A dying star is refusing to go quietly into the night, as seen in this combined infrared and ultraviolet view from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), which NASA has lent to the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. In death, the star's dusty outer layers are unraveling into space, glowing from the intense ultraviolet radiation being pumped out by the hot stellar core.
This object, called the Helix nebula, lies 650 light-years away in the constellation of Aquarius.
A test of the Drizzle Integration feature of PixInsight.
ASI1600MM-Cool, Samyang 135mm ( yes, for real ), Star Adventurer.
120 x 30 sec Ha, and 30 x 30 sec for each RGB channel.
Popularly known as the Eye of God, this is the Helix Nebula, NGC7293 is a planetary nebula roughly 700 light years away and about 2 light years across.
This image combines RGB and Narrowband images at wildly different scales using a combination of RGB from an RC16 with Apogee U9000 with Ha+OIII from FSQ106ED at f3.7 with SBIG ST10xe.
Imaging cameras: Nikon D7000 Nikkon 180mm f/2.8
Mounts: Astrotrac 320X-AG
Software: Photoshop CS 6 Adobe, Noel Carboni's Astro Tools for PhotoShop Noel Carboni Actions, PIXINSIGHT PixInsinght 1.8 RC7
Resolution: 1745x873
Dates: Nov. 5, 2013, Oct. 13, 2014
Frames:
37x80" ISO2000
37x120" ISO2500
Integration: 2.1 hours
Avg. Moon age: 10.57 days
Avg. Moon phase: 39.65%
Bortle Dark-Sky Scale: 3.50
Temperature: 7.00
RA center: 337.412 degrees
DEC center: -20.838 degrees
Orientation: 179.161 degrees
Field radius: 0.826 degrees
Locations: Eldorado (6767' elev), @ Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States
Nebulosa Helix NGC 7293.
20 tomas de 480seg cada una.
Canon 350D modificada
Esprit120
Torroja del Priorat
The New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (abbreviated as NGC) is a catalogue of deep-sky objects compiled by John Louis Emil Dreyer in 1888 as a new version of John Herschel's General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars. The NGC contains 7,840 objects, known as the NGC objects. It is one of the largest comprehensive catalogues, as it includes all types of deep space objects and is not confined to, for example, galaxies. Dreyer also published two supplements to the NGC in 1895 and 1908, known as the Index Catalogues, describing a further 5,386 astronomical objects.
A dying star is throwing a cosmic tantrum in this combined image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), which NASA has lent to the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. In death, the star's dusty outer layers are unraveling into space, glowing from the intense ultraviolet radiation being pumped out by the hot stellar core.
This object, called the Helix nebula, lies 650 light-years away, in the constellation of Aquarius. Also known by the catalog number NGC 7293, it is a typical example of a class of objects called planetary nebulae. Discovered in the 18th century, these cosmic works of art were erroneously named for their resemblance to gas-giant planets.
Planetary nebulae are actually the remains of stars that once looked a lot like our sun. These stars spend most of their lives turning hydrogen into helium in massive runaway nuclear fusion reactions in their cores. In fact, this process of fusion provides all the light and heat that we get from our sun. Our sun will blossom into a planetary nebula when it dies in about five billion years.
When the hydrogen fuel for the fusion reaction runs out, the star turns to helium for a fuel source, burning it into an even heavier mix of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. Eventually, the helium will also be exhausted, and the star dies, puffing off its outer gaseous layers and leaving behind the tiny, hot, dense core, called a white dwarf. The white dwarf is about the size of Earth, but has a mass very close to that of the original star; in fact, a teaspoon of a white dwarf would weigh as much as a few elephants!
The glow from planetary nebulae is particularly intriguing as it appears surprisingly similar across a broad swath of the spectrum, from ultraviolet to infrared. The Helix remains recognizable at any of these wavelengths, but the combination shown here highlights some subtle differences.
The intense ultraviolet radiation from the white dwarf heats up the expelled layers of gas, which shine brightly in the infrared. GALEX has picked out the ultraviolet light pouring out of this system, shown throughout the nebula in blue, while Spitzer has snagged the detailed infrared signature of the dust and gas in yellow A portion of the extended field beyond the nebula, which was not observed by Spitzer, is from NASA's all-sky Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). The white dwarf star itself is a tiny white pinprick right at the center of the nebula.
The brighter purple circle in the very center is the combined ultraviolet and infrared glow of a dusty disk circling the white dwarf (the disk itself is too small to be resolved). This dust was most likely kicked up by comets that survived the death of their star.
Before the star died, its comets, and possibly planets, would have orbited the star in an orderly fashion. When the star ran out of hydrogen to burn, and blew off its outer layers, the icy bodies and outer planets would have been tossed about and into each other, kicking up an ongoing cosmic dust storm. Any inner planets in the system would have burned up or been swallowed as their dying star expanded.
Infrared data from Spitzer for the central nebula is rendered in green (wavelengths of 3.6 to 4.5 microns) and red (8 to 24 microns), with WISE data covering the outer areas in green (3.4 to 4.5 microns) and red (12 to 22 microns). Ultraviolet data from GALEX appears as blue (0.15 to 2.3 microns).
Deep H-alpha image of the Helix Nebula obtained from my backyard, 15 km from Sydney's city centre.
This image combines the best 40 frames of the 82 frames I got the nights of 24-30 August, 7, 12 and 15 September 2020 using the ZWO ASI1600MM Pro and the H-alpha Baader 3.5nm ultra-narrow filter.
All frames had an exposition time of 900s (15 minutes), hence this image combines a total of 10 hours of telescope time!
Telescope: Skywatcher Black Diamond 80, f=600mm (f/7.5)
Equipment: I used the ZWO ASIAir to control the camera, the mount (Skywatcher AZ-EQ6) and the guiding system (ASI120MM + Orion 50mm finderscope). The H-alpha filter was in the ZWO filter drawer.
Processing: Data processed with Siril software. FITS converted on TIFF using NASA's Fits Liberator considering a logarithmic function. Color / saturation / levels / contrast / smart sharpen with Photoshop.
I hope to get soon some data in broad-band filters to get the colours!
Credit: Ángel R. López-Sánchez (AAO-MQ).
Helix Nebula, "Eye of God" NGC 7293, is a large planetary nebula in the constellation Aquarius. Captured in auguste and september 2014 with Hyperstar 14" and Atik 460EX (h-alpha) and Atik 490 EX (RGB), ASA DDM85 mount. Tenerife 1200 m altitude
The Helix Nebula. This image is a combination of data taken last year and this year in two sessions. This object is a very challenging target because from this location it is very low in the sky and there isn't much time to image it before it disappears behind trees and buildings. To shoot it from North London means pointing a telescope straight into the glow of London light pollution and taking long exposures. The subs looked terrible on both sessions so I was amazed that anything at all came out after stacking. On the second session we also had a nearly full moon to contend with and that washed the images out even more. The final image required a lot of processing and still looks rather noisy.
[From Wikipedia] The Helix Nebula (also known as NGC 7293 or Caldwell 63) is a planetary nebula located approximately 650 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius. This object is one of the closest to the Earth of all the bright planetary nebulae. The nebula spans about 2.5 light-years and its age is estimated to be 10,966 years. The Helix Nebula has sometimes been referred to as the "Eye of God" in pop culture, as well as the "Eye of Sauron".
The Helix Nebula is an example of a planetary nebula, formed by the death of an intermediate to low-mass star, which sheds its outer layers near the end of its evolution. Gases from the star in the surrounding space appear, from our vantage point, as if we are looking down a helix structure. The remnant central stellar core, known as the central star (CS) of the planetary nebula, 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.
09-10/09/2020
016 x 300-second exposures at Unity Gain (139) cooled to -20°C
050 x dark frames
020 x flat frames
100 x bias frames
Binning 1x1
23-24/09/2021
013 x 300-second exposures at Unity Gain (139) cooled to -20°C
006 x 180-second exposures at Unity Gain (139) cooled to -20°C
050 x dark frames
040 x flat frames
100 x bias frames
Binning 1x1
Total integration time = 2 hours and 43 minutes
Captured with APT
Guided with PHD2
Processed in Nebulosity and Photoshop
Equipment:
Telescope: Sky-Watcher Explorer-150PDS
Mount: Skywatcher EQ5
Guide Scope: Orion 50mm Mini
Guiding Camera: ZWO ASI 120 MC
Guiding Camera: SVBONY SV105 with ZWO USBST4 guider adapter
Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI1600MC Pro with anti-dew heater
Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector
Light pollution filter
Optolong L-PRO Maximum Luminosity Filter
The New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (abbreviated as NGC) is a catalogue of deep-sky objects compiled by John Louis Emil Dreyer in 1888 as a new version of John Herschel's General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars. The NGC contains 7,840 objects, known as the NGC objects. It is one of the largest comprehensive catalogues, as it includes all types of deep space objects and is not confined to, for example, galaxies. Dreyer also published two supplements to the NGC in 1895 and 1908, known as the Index Catalogues, describing a further 5,386 astronomical objects.
This infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the Helix nebula, a cosmic starlet often photographed by amateur astronomers for its vivid colors and eerie resemblance to a giant eye.
The nebula, located about 700 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius, belongs to a class of objects called planetary nebulae. Discovered in the 18th century, these cosmic butterflies were named for their resemblance to gas-giant planets.
Planetary nebulae are actually the remains of stars that once looked a lot like our sun. .
When sun-like stars die, they puff out their outer gaseous layers. These layers are heated by the hot core of the dead star, called a white dwarf, and shine with infrared and visible-light colors. Our own sun will blossom into a planetary nebula when it dies in about five billion years.
In Spitzer's infrared view of the Helix nebula, the eye looks more like that of a green monster's. Infrared light from the outer gaseous layers is represented in blues and greens. The white dwarf is visible as a tiny white dot in the center of the picture. The red color in the middle of the eye denotes the final layers of gas blown out when the star died.
The brighter red circle in the very center is the glow of a dusty disk circling the white dwarf (the disk itself is too small to be resolved). This dust, discovered by Spitzer's infrared heat-seeking vision, was most likely kicked up by comets that survived the death of their star. Before the star died, its comets and possibly planets would have orbited the star in an orderly fashion. But when the star blew off its outer layers, the icy bodies and outer planets would have been tossed about and into each other, resulting in an ongoing cosmic dust storm. Any inner planets in the system would have burned up or been swallowed as their dying star expanded.
The Helix nebula is one of only a few dead-star systems in which evidence for comet survivors has been found.
This image is made up of data from Spitzer's infrared array camera and multiband imaging photometer. Blue shows infrared light of 3.6 microns; green shows infrared light of 5.8 microns; and red shows infrared light of 24 microns.
This planetary nebula is one of the closest nebula to Earth. Its distance is about 650 ly from Earth. This beautiful nebula is produced by death of a star like our Sun in size. Sometimes, its called “Eye of God” or “Eye of Sauron” like in Lord of the Ring movie. Gear Setup: William Optics 71 APO Zenithstar + F/F, iOptron iEQ 30pro unguided, Acquisition by APT, 60 x 30 sec subs @ 0 degree, 20 Darks, 20 Flats, 20 Bias. Total exposure 30 minutes @ 15 degree over horizon over a light polluted area (Not great for imaging condition). Stacked by DSS and processed by PS 2020 CC, photo is cropped.
Six hundred and fifty light-years away in the constellation Aquarius, a dead star about the size of Earth, is refusing to fade away peacefully. In death, it is spewing out massive amounts of hot gas and intense ultraviolet radiation, creating a spectacular object called a "planetary nebula.".
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In this false-color image, NASA's Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes have teamed up to capture the complex structure of the object, called the Helix nebula, in unprecedented detail. The composite picture is made up of visible data from Hubble and infrared data from Spitzer..
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The dead star, called a white dwarf, can be seen at the center of the image as a white dot. All of the colorful gaseous material seen in the image was once part of the central star, but was lost in the death throes of the star on its way to becoming a white dwarf. The intense ultraviolet radiation being released by the white dwarf is heating and destabilizing the molecules in its surrounding environment, starting from the inside out..
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Like an electric stovetop slowly heating up from the center first, the hottest and most unstable gas molecules can be seen at the center of the nebula as wisps of blue. The transition to more stable and cooler molecules is clearly depicted as the color of the gas changes from very hot (blue) to hot (yellow) and warm (red)..
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A striking feature of the Helix, first revealed by ground-based images, is its collection of thousands of filamentary structures, or strands of gas. In this image the filaments can be seen under the transparent blue gas as red lines radiating out from the center. Astronomers believe that the molecules in these filaments are able to stay cooler and more stable because dense clumps of materials are shielding them from ultraviolet radiation..
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This image is a composite showing ionized H-alpha (green) and O III (blue) gases from the Hubble Space Telescope, and molecular hydrogen (red) from Spitzer observations at 4.5 and 8.0 microns. 18 January 2006
Gases collide near the dying star that produced the Helix Nebula. Astronomers have dubbed the dark, tadpole-like objects in the upper right corner “cometary knots” because their glowing heads and gossamer tails resemble comets. Each gaseous head is at least twice the size of our solar system; each tail stretches 100 billion miles, about a thousand times Earth’s distance to the Sun.
Credit: C. Robert O'Dell and Kerry P. Handron (Rice University), NASA
For Hubble's Caldwell catalog website and information on how to find these objects in the night sky, visit:
Object Details: The Helix is an example of a planetary nebula (i.e. an emission nebula formed by a dying low-to-intermediate size star- a fate which awaits our Sun in a few billion years). The nebula itself is powered by the intense radiation flowing from the extremely hot 'central star'. Classified as a white dwarf, it has a temperature of about 100,000 degrees K (179,540 deg. F / 99,727 deg. C), as opposed to our Sun's 'meager' 5,778 degrees K (9,941 deg. F / 5,505 deg. C).
The Helix can be found in the constellation of Aquarius and glows at magnitude 7.2, making it the brightest planetary nebula in our sky. However, it also spans nearly two-thirds the apparent size of the full moon, and thus has a fairly low surface brightness.
Although it is visible in binoculars, due to this low surface brightness a fairly dark sky is usually required. The central star shines at magnitude 13.4 and is visible in medium to larger telescopes. Instruments of this size also begin to show detail within the nebula itself, especially when combined with an applicable filter such as an OIII or a UHC.
Lying approximately 700 light-years away, it is nearly 3 light-years in diameter and estimated to be about 10,000 years old.
Image Details: The attached images were taken Jay Edwards on October 28, 2019 simultaneously using (left) an 80mm f/6 carbon-fiber triplet apochromatic refractor (i.e. an Orion ED80T CF) connected to a Televue 0.8X field flattener / focal reducer and (right) a vintage 1970 8-inch, f/7 Criterion newtonian reflector. The 80mm was piggybacked on the 8-inch, and the scopes utilized twin (unmodded) Canon 700D / t5i DSLRs controlled by APT.
These optics were tracked using a Losmandy G-11 mount running a Gemini 2 control system and guided using PHD2 to control a ZWO ASI290MC planetary camera / auto-guider in an 80mm f/6 Celestron 'short-tube' refractor which itself was piggybacked on top of the 80mm apo.
Due to the fact that the Helix lies fairly far south in the sky when viewed from the observatory at our home here in upstate, NY, and thus is only visible for a relatively limited time during the year; combined with the challenging weather conditions we've experienced this fall, the attached composite image was constructed using (relatively speaking) extremely short stacks of sub-exposures and consists of only 45 minutes of total exposure for the 80MM shot & 32 minutes for the 8-in image (both in addition to applicable dark, flat & bias frames).
This somewhat limited amount of data, combined with the atmospheric turbulence and attenuation resulting from it's low altitude, induce a higher-than-desirable level of noise into the final stacked images. I am hoping to capture additional data next fall in an attempt to increase the signal-to-noise ratio and improve the level of detail visible in the resulting shots.
Processed using PixInsight and PaintShopPro, as presented here it has been re-sized down to HD resolution and the bit depth has been lowered to 8 bits per channel.