The Helix Nebula is a large planetary nebula which spans about the same area of the sky as half the apparent diameter of the Moon. Photographic images of the Helix nebula show the nebula to be even larger, as large as the apparent size as the entire Moon. The nebula owes its large apparent size to its relatively close proximity of just 450 light-years. At about 1.5 light years in diameter the Helix nebula was formed when the central star shed its outer layers into space, stars do this in an attempt to survive, shedding fuel-exhausted layers to re-balance mass and gravity.
Its helical spring-like appearance gives rise to its name the Helix Nebula, a mathematical name for a three dimensional curve that lays on a cylinder or more generally speaking a spiral form. If you examine this image of the Helix Nebula and trace the outer red shapes of the nebula, you may recognise that it appears like two rings joined outlining its cylindrical shape which appears from our perspective to lay on its side and point off to the lower left.
interestingly, the helix neb as taken by hubble and altered slightly has been emailed around as "the eye of god nebula"... bit of a false urban legend.
heres some info: http://www.snopes.com/photos/space/eyeofgod.asp
That's a nice picture, all the red looking stuff on the right is that due to the amplifier of the canon 300D?
Geeday H0ughy,
That's a very interesting question, one that I have also been asking myself.
No, I don't think it is glow from the amplifier since this imaged is cropped from the original and the original image quite plainly showed the amp. glow on one side of the image in the usual spots.
I think there are two possibilities.
1. it may be red-channel colour-noise produced as a side effect of the image processing I did.
2. it might be extended nebula from the Helix ?
Number 1 would be my first guess. Having said that, it doesn't explain why this "red noise" isn't on the other side of the nebula.
Awesome image Paul...!! I have struggled to get a decent image of the Helix recently. Maybe I'll try again....
Cheers
Thanks Robby,
I've struggled for years to get a decent image of the Helix, so your not alone. Like fisherman, you can't come back with the ultimate catch everytime - to me that's part of the hobby - keep trying and refining your methods, eventually
you'll get there.
Top shot Paul. Im envious of your focussing skills.
Hi Robin,
Thanks.
Nothing worse than spending the whole night imaging only to later find you were a fraction off proper focus. My latest weapon in focusing is to locate brighter stars that have fainter companion stars, like Fomalhaut. I've been focusing on the companion star for a few months now. The tiny companion star is just at the edge of visibility through the camera viewfinder, so it will pop in and out of focus.
Nice shot of the Helix. A couple of questions though.
Firstly, Are you sure that the red on the right is nebulosity, or is it gradient? I ask because I have seen images of the helix with a red loop on the opposite side, but nothing like what you have on the right.
Secondly, the green in the centre is interesting. Did your subframes show this colour, or is it processing?
Awesome shot Paul.
I had a look at the high res one and it looks stunning.
Nice work.
When did you get clear skies?
Clear Skies? Ha... Haven't had any for a month now,
but like last night, the clouds seperated long enough
to do 40 minutes worth of PhotonCollecting while
pointed at NGC 300.
Having an observatory certainly gives me the advantage
of being able to "open up" and get imaging within 20 minutes
or so.
Nice shot of the Helix. A couple of questions though.
Firstly, Are you sure that the red on the right is nebulosity, or is it gradient? I ask because I have seen images of the helix with a red loop on the opposite side, but nothing like what you have on the right.
Secondly, the green in the centre is interesting. Did your subframes show this colour, or is it processing?
Again, great shot. Well Done
Thanks Itchy,
As I mentioned previously I was more convinced it was red-channel noise left over from processing.
Why is the green interesting ? (here's some info about the colours of the Helix I have at hand; look at this AAO Image http://www.aao.gov.au/images/captions/aat015.html it says: "The greenish middle portion is evidence of excited oxygen atoms...." )
By sub-frames do you mean individual exposures ? Thinking that you do, then the answer is yes (otherwise it would not be green in the final image).
However it is certainly my processing which effected the stronger colours.
Do you process 'n stack your images by hand ? or do you have some software that does it for you ?
