Nebula
When planning this project, I came across a paper by Zhang et al discussing a possible halo around the Helix nebula. On Galex UV images, they detected a very faint possible NE jet, a SW bow shaped filament and a diffuse Southern Halo. I decided to take a deep image of the Helix to see if I could detect these infrequently seen features in Ha emission. I had also noticed on some images, faint OIII emission occurring around the NE and SW arc’s and wanted to see if I could clearly define this OIII emission.
Imaging Telescopes Or Lenses
Nikkor AF-S 400mm f/2.8E FL ED VR
Imaging Cameras
ZWO ASI6200MM Pro
Filters
Chroma Filters
Mounts
10Micron GM1000 HPS
Software
Adobe Photoshop · Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight · Starkeeper Voyager
Acquisition details
Dates: July 18, 2023 · Aug. 14, 2023 · Aug. 22, 2023 · Sept. 9, 2023 · Sept. 15, 2023
Integration: 84h 30′
Dunedin, NZ
© Zhang et al, The Astrophysical Journal
Data was captured with my Nikon 400mm f/2.8 including all of the nebulosity data seen here, but I did add some of the brighter stars from some data I had from my APM LZOS refractor. I used drizzle integration, and the outer faint halo was processed using continuum subtraction and carefully masked to not blow out the brighter inner ring. Astrobin link: https://www.astrobin.com/h8hnt0/
