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 The Helix is one of the
            largest planetaries in angular extent in the entire sky. Spanning
            a huge 16 arcminutes for the brightest portions, outer shells
            add to its size to over half a degree. Bright at an integrated
            magnitude of 7.5, the central star is 13.5, bright for such an
            object. Also, the number of background galaxies found here is
            stunning. Over two dozen faint galaxies can be seen in the largest
            image. There are half a dozen inside the planetaries confines
            itself, can you find them all?

            
There are several
            interesting features here. There is a deep red stripe on the
            rim at about the 2 o'clock position, in which was seen in the
            IR, but not in the visible. (My chip cover slip is CRGB) Also
            note the extended shell to the upper left from a prior outburst
            of the central star. Finally, the "Holy Grail" of Helix
            images can be seen here as well - the cometary globules pointing
            inward from the red ring into the cyan inner disk. (Teal for
            D.G.)

Instrument:  12.5" f/5 Home made Newtonian
Platform:  Astrophysics 1200 QMD
CCD Camera:  SBIG 10XME NABG with Enhanced Cooling
Guider: Meade DSI Pro
Exposure:  LRGB = 60:20:20:20 (RGB Binned 2x2)+60m Ha  
RGB Combine Ratio:  1: 1.05: 1.11
Filters:  AstroDon RGB Tricolor
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing FWHM = 5.5 arcsec (Maxim DL - 10min subframe), Transparency 8/10
Outside Temperature:  55 F
CCD Temperature:  -30 C
Image Processing Tools: 
Maxim DL:  Calibration, deblooming (Starizona Debloomer), aligning, stacking
Gralaks Sigma:  Stacking
PixInsight:  Curves, Deconvolution, noise reduction
Photoshop CS2:  Curves, Color Correction, Gradient removal (Grad Xterminator), Cleanup

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