Helix Nebula - NGC7293

[cventer]

Hello All,

After spending 6 hours tonight (yes the wife is away) trying to process this Helix data gathered on the full moon Monday night I am giving up.... I need to re image this under dark skies and take longer exposures. Anyhow its the first time I have imaged this object and considering conditions and what I started with 6 hours ago and after much digital trickery I am not too unhappy with the results...Details of image aquisition are on this link....
http://www.dslrfocus.com/gallery/NGC7293.html

I had to make it smallish to hide the noise from lack of signal... :(

Best Regards
Chris Venter

[atalas]

Holy Cow Chris ! you pulled this out of a Mull Moon ? It looks great .

[xrekcor]

Well done Chris :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

You can almost pick out the comet like structures you see in Hubble images.

regards,CS

[Robby]

Nice one Chris.. I assume you are using the C9.25 for this? What do you use to get the diffraction spikes? I have used a couple of pieces of wire across the front in the past, but wondered if there was a better way?
Cheers

[iceman]

Beautiful shot Chris, I can't wait to see the final version when you've got more signal to smooth it out.

[davidpretorius]

great work!!!

[h0ughy]

that's Tops! Again if that is your reject I look at it anyday

[RB]

Wow Chris,

As always you leave me speachless.

:jawdrop:

[TidaLpHasE]

;)Wow 6 hours, that's dedication.

That's an awsome image Chris, like all the ones you post.

[cventer]

Thanks all for your nice comments.


Robby,

This was taken with a 4" Takahashi FS102. I made up a set of cross hair type vanes out of aluminum and painted them flat black with felt on the ends. They just slide into the dew shield.

If I wanted the same effect on my 9.25 I would use a set of very thin black shoe laces and blue tak them across the front.

The detail in this structure is hard to bring out with only 4" of glass. I will do this again on my C925 in a couple of weeks when I am at Vic South and hopefully get some of the nodules that are in the inner ring....

Processign from a dark site will be a lot easier. A full moon and wide field with the Tak makes Light pollution gradients a nightmare....from the burbs

Best Regards
Chris

[Striker]

Very nice Chris.

6 hours...your very persistent....well done.

[seeker372011]

Its what john west rejects....

seriously though Chris that is a keeper!

what a stunning image!

[Rodstar]

Well done Chris. You can see quite clearly the steams of materialaround the inner edges, like in the shot in Australian Sky and Telescope Nov edition!

[tornado33]

Do try that again without the moon, you already have the Northeast Arc (faint feature on right). I consider that the holy grail of amateur imaging, only deep shots can record that. I think you will get even better results without moonlight :)
Features of the Helix Nebula http://exploration.vanderbilt.edu/images/news/article_main/news_helix_nebula2.jpg
Scott

[rumples riot]

Lovely image Chris, good definition in the ring and the central star is nice and bright.

[Striker]

I cant even see this Neb in Brisbane Chris....I tried last night and took me neally an hour just to find it whilst doing 20 second exposure trying to find a glimpse of the Nebula....even with a few images at 40 seconds the detail was virtualy nill.

Once I found it the clouds come over......lol

Great effort for a suburban shot.

I might work on this tonight...weather pending

[Itchy]

Yep, the Helix is pretty dim. Difficult to pick up visually from a suburban sight. Thank God for goto.

Good luck