1st Attempt of the Helix Nebula NGC 7293

[Startrek (Martin)]

I’ve never imaged the Helix planetary Nebula before mainly because of many failed attempts with the old DSLR
Unfortunately the moon was 52% lit last night under Sydney Bortle 8 skyglow but gave it a shot anyway with the ZWOASI2600MC
6” f6 newt
EQ6-R Mount
105 x 60 sec dithered guided subs
20 x darks
PHD2 guiding was atrocious, saw toothing all night at 1.50 to 170 arc sec ( dithering added you the problem )
Goto and tracking EQMOD StellariumScope and Stellarium
Frame focus and capture APT
Ascom camera control ( Highest Dynamic Range Gain 0 )
Camera cooled to -10C
ZWO 2” Duoband filter
Baader Coma Corrector
Stacked in DSS
Processed in Startools V1.5 Linear OSC data set

Comments most welcome

[leon]

Regardless of the conditions you mentioned, Martin, a top effort indeed, well done.

Leon

[xelasnave]

In Sydney..not too bad at all. So tell me Martin are you happy with the new camera?
Alex

[neurosis3000 (Reggie)]

Looks pretty good to me

[Nikolas (Nik)]

The stars are very round so your guiding, despite the phd graphs was spot on

[Fernando]

Beautiful Helix Nebulae. Nice colors, round stars!!!

[Startrek (Martin)]

Thanks All
It was a noisy image with skyglow plus moon overhead but Startools did a good job of cleaning it up
I’d like to image it again soon at my dark site when the moon has gone and capture 3 or 4 hours worth of longer subs
Alex
I’ve only had the camera for 2 weeks and the results are excellent, a big thumbs up for this 2600MC

Thanks again