NGC 7293 - Helix Nebula or the Miracle Nebula

[JimFox]

Since Andy is creating names for his Nebula's, I might change the Helix Nebula to the Miracle Nebula because when I was shooting with the SkyGuider Pro and the D850, the thought of capturing the Helix Nebula would have taken a miracle. I have been eyeing this nebula for a couple of years now. I tried to capture it, but with the SkyGuider Pro being totally manual, it was a really hard object to find in the sky. The time or two I was able to find it and track it, the D850 being just a regular camera had a really hard time picking up the faint nebulosity in it.

So when I was able to get the ioptron Gem28 astro mount for Christmas, and then I got the ASIAir 2600mc Pro astro camera for New Years, I knew that the Helix Nebula would be one that I would be wanting to try and capture to see if just maybe, I could actually see it and image it. And I was!!!! I was really so excited to see my first image of it on my ipad (I use the iPad to control my astro gear).

While this isn't perfect, it's like a million times improvement of my past attempts at it.

ioptron Gem 28
ASIAir 2600mc Pro
Tamron 150-600mm @600mm
45 - Lights @ 180 secs = 2hours 15 mins integration
20 - Flats
5 - Darks
Stacked in DeepSkyStack
Processed in Photoshop
Stars Removed initially by StarExterminator

All comments are welcome,

Jim

PS. If you look very close you will see an "eyebrow" above the Helix Nebula. Looking at it like this, the "eye nebula" to me is a more fitting name.

 

[Ben Egbert]

I officially accept your new name Jim. This appears to me to be a very nice image

 

[AlanLichty]

Very nice - real astro gear makes a rather notable difference for your DSO photography.

 

[JimFox]

I officially accept your new name Jim. This appears to me to be a very nice image

Thank you so much Ben!

 

[JimFox]

Very nice - real astro gear makes a rather notable difference for your DSO photography.

In most of photography the gear can almost be inconsequential, and the photographer matters most. But with Deep Space Astro the photographer and their skills also matter, but the gear can make the most difference. My skill level is what my skill level is, but my quality of the images immediately jumped because I now have a mount that can track DSO's that I could never ever track before. And I have a camera that capture different wave lengths of light that my plain old DSLR could never even see, much less capture.

Thanks Alan.

 

[Mike Lewis]

Jim,

Great to see you getting this iconic object. Nice colors and starting to see some central details. very nice for that amount of integration on such a low in the sky object.

ML