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Description
The Helix Nebula (NGC 7293), dubbed "The Eye of God", is a planetary nebula in the constellation of Aquarius. Planetary nebulae are formed when low-mass stars like the Sun run out of nuclear fuel and undergo a slow but beautiful death.

I have imaged this object in colour before, but there were issues with the colour version which made me decide not to combine the datasets. As such, I am presenting it as a work-in-progress monochrome version, and I hope to eventually get data from other channels to present it in full colour. However, since I am still awaiting for the arrival of my filters, I am doubtful I will be able to achieve that by this season.

Besides that, I have accumulated 6 hours of data on this object, and I am very happy with the detail here even without colour, which is why I am posting it. While the extending northeast arc on the top right can be seen distinctly, if you look carefully you may be able to see the fainter southwest arc on the bottom left of the nebula. Additionally, if you view at higher resolution, you will be able to clearly see the cometary knots that are radially symmetrical with respect to the ring.

Due to the wide field of view of my telescope+camera system, the image you see here is heavily cropped.

Technical Details:
Telescope: AP130GTX at f/4.5
Camera: Atik 16200M
Mount: G11 Gemini 2
Exposure: 24 x 15 minutes (HA)

Acquired with Astroimager, stacked with AstroPixelProcessor, Processed in PixInsight.

Description
The Helix Nebula (NGC 7293), dubbed "The Eye of God", is a planetary nebula in the constellation of Aquarius. Planetary nebulae are formed when low-mass stars like the Sun run out of nuclear fuel and undergo a slow but beautiful death.

I have imaged this object in colour before, but there were issues with the colour version which made me decide not to combine the datasets. As such, I am presenting it as a work-in-progress monochrome version, and I hope to eventually get data from other channels to present it in full colour. However, since I am still awaiting for the arrival of my filters, I am doubtful I will be able to achieve that by this season.

Besides that, I have accumulated 6 hours of data on this object, and I am very happy with the detail here even without colour, which is why I am posting it. While the extending northeast arc on the top right can be seen distinctly, if you look carefully you may be able to see the fainter southwest arc on the bottom left of the nebula. Additionally, if you view at higher resolution, you will be able to clearly see the cometary knots that are radially symmetrical with respect to the ring.

Due to the wide field of view of my telescope+camera system, the image you see here is heavily cropped.

Technical Details:
Telescope: AP130GTX at f/4.5
Camera: Atik 16200M
Mount: G11 Gemini 2
Exposure: 24 x 15 minutes (HA)

Acquired with Astroimager, stacked with AstroPixelProcessor, Processed in PixInsight.