Looking deeper into the Helix (Respiciens in Helix)

[Addos (Adam)]

Took the Ha data I got last year with the 294mm I added Ha, Oiii and RGB data from the 2600 captured more recently.

Esprit 120 / Eq6r / Antlia 3nm and RGB all the same.

Am very happy with the 'depth' in the Ha I'm starting to see at the extreme edges of the outgassing regions and the extremely faint red hue surrounding the entire structure. Will prob add to this project every year now, its well worth it and hopefully by the time I'm 70 there'll be several hundred hours here.

A HOO effort with RGB stars, plus an extra year of processing experience

Contributions:
294mm - Ha Antlia 3nm ~ 30hrs
2600mm
Ha ~ 14hrs
Oiii ~ 13.5hrs
RGB ~ 1.5 hrs
~59 hrs

Higher res: https://www.astrobin.com/i65yru/

[Peter Ward]

There is a serious body of work that has gone into this image, which is very well spent.

Sure there are deeper/sharper examples on the web, but gee....you gotta' dig
deep to find them.

I'd personally ditch the NB palette (ho humm...) and instead use it to enhance the RGB data. Sure, mother nature might look more appealing with some blush and lippy, but seriously, forget the trans look.

Well done

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

A very good Helix Adam, with all the cool faint outer bits visible, a big project and if it does continue into your twilight years, why not add some Lum to reveal the background galaxies

Mike

[petershah (Peter Shah)]

Super image, great job

[Dave882 (David)]

Wow that’s nothing short of absolutely stunning. The depth, detail and substance in those outer shells is incredible.

[Startrek (Martin)]

Adam,
You’ve come this far so I reckon keep adding good data to this incredible Helix.
10/10 for me
Most of us are just lucky enough expose a bit of eyebrow, yours has gone to another level through hard work , persistence and excellent processing
Well done indeed !!
Hopefully see your next revision in 2024
Can’t wait
Cheers
Martin

[Benjamin (Ben)]

Love this Helix. Jumps off the screen and all that faint detail is superb.

[Addos (Adam)]

Thank you Pete! Its awesome when you start seeing the faint red hue around everything, and then realise its not just a bad DBE run Amazing how much gas gets thrown off in all directions from a 'minor' star death event. I really hope we get to see a reasonably close nova event in our life times, that gas cloud would be amazing!

Thanks Mike! Thats a great idea going for the background objects... I get the feeling I'm starting to hit the point of diminishing returns on the narrowband, that'll be a great way to keep adding to this project in future years!

Thanks Pete and Dave! It does get a little exciting when you can start to pull out that fainter stuff without heaps of noise coming through too. Makes the mucho subs you have to collect worth it

Thank you Martin! Very kind! It definitely takes some persistence to go deep with an f7/3nm combo but targets like this remind you there's payoff at the end! Im giving a counterweight rebalancing exercise a go this weekend to see if I can get the old eq6 to do 15 minute subs more reliably, maybe open the gate to 20 min subs to see if I can reduce sub numbers. Fingers crossed!

Gracias Ben! Thanks for noticing! Thats one area of my processing I really feel like I've made some progress on from my effort last year, background management. Looking back at last year's the background is way too bright and now I find it distracting to look at