Helix Ha inverted

[Paul Haese]

Bert's image of the Helix Nebula prompted me to take a look at some of my data from last year. Viewing it normally does not really show much detail. Only inverted really shows all the shells and faint traces of gas of the Helix.

There appears to be 6 maybe 7 shells on lower side of the main shell, I'll leave that up to everyone to guess how many there are.

This data is 60 hours worth in Ha

Click here (https://phaese.smugmug.com/Other/Astroimaging/i-TddpNkq/O) for the larger resolution image which shows all the shells.

Not bad for a 4" scope or should I saw straw :P.

[Atmos]

Really had showed up a lot. Amazing comparing Berts (fairly limited exposure time) and yours (mammoth)!

[IanP]

Paul, this is absolutely amazing image. So much details in it :thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

Nice one Paul.

One trend that has emerged over the last several years as people do deeper and deeper images and scopes and cameras have become faster and more sensitive is to show most objects are much more extensive than originally imaged.

Galaxies generally have far far larger faint halos that are mostly out of our detection limits and nebulas are more extensive as well.

Greg.

[Stevec35]

Impressive Paul! Amazing detail there.

Cheers

Steve

[clive milne]

Very good Paul...

I think that is now the bench mark, wide field Helix.

[avandonk]

Your image looks very good Paul. I thought I was imagining the outer halo until I inverted the image.

Here is an animated gif of your image and mine 6MB

http://d1355990.i49.quadrahosting.com.au/2016_06/PaulB.gif


I would have to collect about 50x32 min to collect the same number of photons as your image. If the clouds get out of the way will try it.

Bert

[RickS]

Very impressive, Paul. Great to see all that additional structure clearly.

[Paul Haese]

Thanks guys for the comments.



It is a good time now to have the ability to buy equipment that allows very deep imaging. It does make for interesting results.



Hmmm, I think you might get there a bit sooner than that Bert. I think you might get there around 20 hours or even slightly less.

[Ross G]

Amazing amount of faint detail Paul and so sharp.

Ross.

[Shiraz]

thanks for posting this defintive image Paul - nice to be able see the full extent of the Ha structure