NGC 7293, also called the Helix Nebula is a magnitude 7.3 planetary nebula in the constellation of Aquarius, and is located at a distance of only 450 light years. At a declination of -20 degrees it is a pretty low object to image which means we have to see through a lot of atmosphere and this results in a loss of resolution. We go after it to get the best image that we can, however, since it is a such a visually appealing object. It is one of the largest planetaries, at 16 arc minutes, more than half that of the full moon.

Date: July 26,28,29, August 1,3,4 2008
Location: New Ringgold PA
Optics: Meade LX200R 12 inch at f/5.9
Mount: Paramount ME
Camera: SBIG ST-8XME / CFW-8
Guiding: ST-8XME integral guiding chip controlled by Maxim CCD
Exposure: LHaRGB - Luminance: 11x10 min, Ha:4x10 min,R: 8x6 min, G:13x6 min, B:9x10min (lum unbinned and color binned 2x2)
Processing: Image acquisition using CCD Autopilot. Initial processing was done using Maxim DL with subsequent processing with Photoshop. A combination of the Red and HA images were used for the RBG combine.