NGC 7293 in Aquarius, the Helix Nebula

NGC 7293, the Helix Nebula in Aquarius.

More recently named the God's Eye Nebula, it is

one of the largest planetary nebula as viewed

from Earth and, perhaps, one of the closest

to us being only 650 light years distant.

Hover over the image for an annotated view.

Date:  25 August 2025

FOV:  cropped to 60' × 40'; NGC 7293 is about 25'

Rotation:  0.045°

Telescope:  Celestron C14 SCT (3910mm, f/11)

Starizona HyperStar (731.50mm, f/1.9)

Guiding:  ZWO183 MM

Computer:  ASIair plus 256GB

Mount:  iOptron CEM120

Camera:  ZWO ASI2600MC Pro Cooled (0°C) Color CMOS with gain 100

Pixel size:  3.76 μm

Resolution:  1.060 arcsec/pixel

Filter:  Optolong UV/IR

Stacking:  twenty-seven 300 second frames using PixInsight

Calibration frames: 20 dark, 20 flat, 20 dark flat

Total Time:  2 hours 15 minutes

Processing:  Pixinsight – SPCC, DBE, SPCC, BlurXT, NoiseXT → Linear

HTS, GHS, MStr, PixelMath MStr + GHS + HST → Stars,

Linear, StarXT, HTS, GHS, MStr → Stars,

PixelMath ~(~Starless*~Stars) → Blend

Location:  Darling Hill Observatory in Vesper, NY