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Scope: C8 f/6.2 Location: Laguna Mountains, CA 27 August 2005 Camera: Artemis285
Exposure: 5 x 360 sec H-Alpha (1x1 bin), 8 x 180 sec IR Block (1x1 bin), 6 x 90 sec RGB Exposures (2x2 bin)
Processing: Images were captured Artemis Capture (as FITs). Aligned/stacked in Registax 3 and saved as FITS. Luminance, H-Alpha, and Color channels were scaled and rough color balanced in Astroart. Channels were co-registered in Astroart. The H-Alpha exposure was the main exposure for the luminance construction - the IR block exposure was combined (lighten combine) with the H-Alpha for star depth with the fainter stars and the blue inner region of the nebula. This Luminance channel was smoothed for background noise followed by a touch of wavelet sharpening (SGBNR and Wavelets in PixInsight LE). Final LRGB combine was done in Photoshop using Luminance Layering (or LLRGB). Color balancing and final touches were done in Photoshop. SGBNR was used to smooth background noise on the final result. Final Image size is approximately 1392x1040.
All exposures in this image were guided; North is up in this image. NGC 7293 (the Helix Nebula) is a planetary nebula - it is likely one of the closest to Earth at about 450 light years - but that distance is not certain. This image replaces an earlier image that can be seen in the Archives here. The Horizontal FOV is 25'.
Image center is located approximately - Equatorial 2000: RA: 22h 29m 38s Dec: -20°50'11"