The Helix Nebula (also known as NGC 7293 or Caldwell 63) is a planetary nebula (PN) located in the constellation Aquarius.
The Helix Nebula is an example of a planetary nebula, formed by an intermediate to low-mass star, which sheds its outer layers near the end of its evolution. Gases from the star in the surrounding space appear, from Earth's perspective, a helix structure.
The central star of the Helix Nebula is a white dwarf of spectral type DAO. It has the designations WD 2226-210, PHL 287, and GJ 9785. The star has a radius of 0.025 solar radii (17,000 km), a mass of 0.678 M☉, a temperature of 120,000 Kelvin and has an apparent magnitude of 13.5.
| Object | NGC7293 Helix Nebula |
| Constellation: | Aquarius |
| Position: | RA 22h 29m 38.55s DEC −20° 50′ 13.6″ |
| Apparent Size: | 25 arcmins |
| Apparent Magnitude: | 7.3 |
| Distance in light years: | 200 ly |
| Photo Data | |
| Date: | 15.11.2016 – 10.10.2025 |
| Location: |
South African Astronomical Observatory, SA, Sutherland GPS: 32° 22′ 48″S / 20° 48′ 36″E |
| Telescope: | RC Cassegrain 1m, f/d 3.0 / 3000mm |
| Camera: | Sinistro, 4K x 4K 15μm, 60 x 60mm, T-sensor= - °C |
| Field of View: | 26.5 x 26.5 arcmins |
| Pixel Scale/Resolution: | 0.39 arcsec/px |
| Expose frames/times: | rp 9x120/1x240/2x300s, R 4x180/3x250/4x300s, V 2x120/4x180/4x240/6x300s, B 2x120/4x180/4x240/6x300s |
| Total expose: | 3h 20min 30s |
| Filter: | Johnson-Cousins/Bessell BVR, SDSS/PanSTARRS ’r’ |
| Mount: | |
| Software: | Siril 1.4, Photoshop CC |
| Remarks: |
© Photos and photo data by Peter Cerveny
© Raw data sets by LCOGT Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network
© Object description/intro text fully or partially by Wikipedia,
which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License