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| Object | Helix Nebula- NGC 7293 |
| Info |
NGC 7293 is the nearest planetary nebula to the Sun, only about 300 L.y. away and is commonly known as the Helix Nebula. It is the largest planetary nebula in apparent size, covering 1/4degree of sky, half the apparent size of the moon. Despite its size the Helix Nebula is quite faint and needs long exposures to bring detail out. |
| Date | 8;16;17;29/ 7/ 05 |
| Location | BayTop Observatory- Streaky Bay South Australia |
| Instrument | Orion ED80 refractor working @ f7.5 |
| Mount | Vixen 'GPDX' controlled by a Mel Bartels Goto System |
| Camera (CCD) | Starlight Xpress HX516 monochrome with Hm, made filter slider |
| Exposures | L: 270' R:48' G:48' B:48'[(Total exposure time Lrgb=6.9hrs) 6' sub exposures all unbinned] Dark frames removed. Extinction factors applied . |
| Guiding | Sky Watcher-f5 ST Refractor & a Meade LPI imager attached with main scope on a home made accessory plate |
| Filters | Astronomik Type 2 CL-.RGB set |
| Notes/ Conditions |
Conditions- When taking the first group of luminance subs on the 8th, the condition were extremely dewy and transparency was poor. Resulting in slightly bloated stars. When taking the colours the moon was about 70% and setting towards the west. The evening of the 29th when taking my final luminance frames conditions were very good. Resulting in good guiding and transparency. This much improved the over all detail. This object is always a challenge. Both the rgb sets and lum have been 'drizzle combined' coefficient resampled to 120% in IRIS. |