Helix Nebula
The closest planetary nebula to Earth, almost a portal in the sky
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At just 650 light-years away in Aquarius, the Helix is the dying breath of a sun-like star, its outer layers expelled into space over thousands of years, now glowing under the ultraviolet radiation of the white dwarf left behind at the centre. The concentric rings of gas give it an almost geometric, otherworldly quality. NASA once nicknamed it the Eye of God, and it’s easy to see why. What you’re looking at is essentially a preview of our own Sun’s fate, several billion years from now.
180 frames and 6 hours of integration from the Gold Coast backyard. This one needed every single sub. The Helix has a notoriously low surface brightness, making it one of the tougher targets in the catalogue. Getting it from Bortle 6.9 broadband was a challenge.