The helix nebula had always been an impressive image on the cover of an astronomy book I owned as a youth. It seemed so exotic. It didn’t even occur to me that imaging this object myself was within the grasp of the equipment I have, and the latitude I am at, until I had seen some images of the helix nebula from friends within a relatively close proximity to me. Unfortunately, I don’t have much of a view south from my home observing location, and what little southern horizon I do have is obscured with light pollution. However, while at Starfest I had a very good view of the south (a very good view in most directions actually), and this was the target I focused on for the 2 clear nights we had. Many lost subs from people walking around, and I had to toss quite a few more subs from people standing in the way (it was low on the horizon), but it was about the journey for me, not the capture of a perfect image. I even managed to get the “eyebrow” to show up. Although the helix nebula is often processed in many different colour palettes, I focused my post processing of colours to be as close to that of the astronomy book cover from my youth. This image now also prompts great memories of my experiences at Starfest and the people I met and the friends I made.
- Taken – August 26-27, 2022 in Ayton ON (Starfest)
- 7 hours and 40 minutes – 89x300s lights, 60 flats, 60 dark flats, and 50 darks
- William Optics Zenithstar 81 with an asi294mc pro camera, gain 120, L-Extreme filter, cooled to -10
- Flattener and .8x reducer
- EQ6R-PRO with wo50mm guide scope and asi120mm guide camera
- Asiair pro used for image acquisition
- EAF used for focus
- Pixinsight used for stacking and image processing