Helix Nebula
06-Sep-2026
The Helix Nebula (NGC 7293), is a large planetary nebula located in the constellation Aquarius, 695 light years away.
My goal was to tease out as much of the extremely dim outer structure as possible.
Image:
- 62x 300s Luminance
- 43x 300s Red
- 37x 300s Green
- 43x 300s Blue
Total integration 15 hours. Focal length: 840mm
Hardware:
- Skywatcher Esprit 120
- Skywatcher EQ8Rh Pro mount
- ZWO ASI533 Camera @ -10°C
- Astrodon RGB Gen2 E-Series Tru-Balance filters
- Astronomik CLS-CCD Luminance filter
- Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 Autoguider
- Starlight Instruments Feather Touch Focuser
Location:
- Exposed over 3 nights between 15th August to 27th August 2025
- Orange zone in Brisbane, Australia. (Bortle 7)
Software:
- Planning & camera alignment with Aladin 10
- Captured with TheSkyX Professional
- Guiding with PHD2
- PixInsight: Calibrate, align, integrate, dynamic background extraction, LRGB combination, noise reduction, spectrophotometric flux calibration, spectrophotometric colour calibration, histogram, curves.