NGC 7293 – Helix Nebula

The Eye of God

The Helix Nebula is the nearest planetary nebula of the earth located between Aquarius and Capricornus. So its apparent size is quiet large but it is very faint. You need at least a 250mm diameter telescope to see it and a good dark sky to observe it. Another difficulty, it is an horizon hugger as seen from France.  I needed two night to get enough data.

There is small trace in left of the image, the asteroid 1047 Geisha where moving in the field while I was shooting.

41 exposures of 5 minutes done in two nights.
Camera : Canon EOS 1000D unfiltered
Telescope : Takahashi FSQ-106ED refractor.
Mount : Takahashi EM-200 USD3.
Guiding : Orion Starshoot Autoguider on a William Optic Zenithstar 66SD refractor.
Outside temperature : 10°C
Sensor temperature : 13°C
Software : auto-guiding and acquisition with MaximDL, pre-processing with Iris, processing with photoshop.
Location : L’Epine, Hautes-Alpes, France