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: | 2021-10-28 to 2021-12-21 |
| Location: |
Gemini Observatory - Lijiang, China, GPS: 26.867 , 100.217 |
| Telescope: | AG10 CDK, f/d 6.7 / 1665mm |
| Camera: | FLI Proline 6303, 3072 x 2048px, T-sensor= -30°C |
| Field of View: | arcmins |
| Pixel Scale/Resolution: | arcsec/px |
| Expose frames/times: | S 32x900s, H 161x900s, O 56x900s |
| Total expose: | 62h 15min |
| Filter: | SII, Ha, OIII |
| Mount: | |
| Software: | Siril 1.4, Photoshop CC |
| Remarks: |
© Photos by Peter Cerveny
© Object description/intro text fully or partially by Wikipedia,
which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License