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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.

            
This image combines
            some hydrogen alpha data into the integrated whole to bring up
            the fainter background nebulosity. The lovely teal color of the
            core surrounding the central blue star is stunning. Very close
            attention was paid to keeping the original RGB colors as close
            as possible to this final image.

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:  Ha + RGB = 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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