Helix Nebula

The Helix Nebula is a planetary nebula. It sits about 700 lightyears from Earth in the constellation of Aquarius, and spans about 3 lightyears across. As viewed from Earth, it is about half a full moon across.

Planetary nebulae, despite the name, have nothing to do with planets. They are formed at the end of life of a low to medium mass star, when all its fuel for nuclear fusion has been exhausted. The material in the outer layer of the star is ejected into space, while the core collapses into a white dwarf. The white dwarf continues to emit intense radiation, ionizing the ejected material and causing it to glow – hydrogen glows in red, while oxygen glows in blue-green.

Captured with my Skywatcher Quattro 8” telescope and QHY268M camera, with a total exposure time of 4 hours. Processed in HOO palette with RGB stars.