Helix Nebula NGC7293. Images taken over two nights October 5 and 8,
2015 @ Mount Pearl, Newfoundland. Equipment - C11 on EQ8, Canon 6D
(modified) and LPS-P2 filter. Autoguided using ED80, QHY5LII-mono and
PHD2. Images captured with assistance of BackYardEOS, stacked and
processed in PixInsight. Stack of 25, 240-second subs @ 3200iso (100min
total integration time). This one was a challenge as it is relatively
low for our northern latitude sky.
This nebula is commonly known as the "Eye of God" or more recently the "Eye of Sauron". It is a "planetary nebula" (PN). PN's are the result of
a red giant star collapsing on itself and then exploding. This expels an
expanding glowing shell of ionized gas - which is often quite colourful.
Planetary nebula have nothing to do with planets - perhaps named that
way because in early telescopes many looked like planets (small, round
but not pin-point like a star)
Click on image for larger photo. |