NGC 7293
Helix Nebula in Aquarius

10.1″ f/4.5, Mallincam DS432cTEC with Astronomik UHC filter
Exposure = 10-15-20-29 sec, Live Stacked frames = 20-20-20-20-10 (90 total), WhitePoint = 255-255-255-255-220, Gain = 30 of 250

Also known as Caldwell 63 and the “Eye of God”, the Helix Nebula is a planetary nebula that spans approximately 15 arcminutes in this view. Extraordinary colours from blue-green oxygen through to deep red hydrogen and nitrogen are visible in the two overlapping rings that form the helix. The source of the expanding nebula, the bluish white dwarf central star visible here, is 13th magnitude. Finding the Helix proved to be fairly difficult, probably due to a combination of very low surface brightness and low altitude in the sky (about 24 degrees above horizon at the time) – the usual method of setting the Mallincam to a maximum exposure and gain in Video mode (5 seconds and 255 gain) did not work. After double-checking alignment with my Nexus DSC, doubling the exposure to 10 seconds made it appear out of nowhere. The Helix is the largest appearing and closest planetary nebula to us, 650 light years away, about 2.5 light years across, and is about 10,000 years old.

North at 1 o’clock, East at 10 o’clock