Helix Nebula (NGC 7293)
One of the closest and brightest planetary nebulae. It's large but has low surface brightness, requiring dark skies and often a telescope with a wide field of view.
Planetary nebula in Aquarius. Magnitude 7.6.
Can you see it from Guyana?
From Georgetown (6.8° N) it climbs to 63° above the southern horizon at its highest; from Lethem (3.4° N), to 66° above the southern horizon. It is highest at midnight on the night of 26 Aug, in the middle of its season. The page works out tonight's rise, highest point and set for both towns in Guyana time (UTC-4), and where the Moon is.
What you'll see
- Your eyes: Not visible to the eye.
- 10x50 binoculars: A small round smudge from a dark site.
- A small telescope (80 to 100 mm): Large and faint: use low power and an OIII filter.
- A camera: Spans about 40% of an APS-C frame at 2,000 mm (field 0.7° × 0.4°); needs a tracking mount.
How big, how bright, how far
- Size on the sky: 16′, 51% of the Moon's width (the Moon is about 31′ wide).
- Brightness: magnitude 7.6. Fainter than the faintest stars in Georgetown (4.3) and Lethem (6.0): binoculars or a telescope.
- Distance: 695 light-years. The light reaching your eye left it about 700 years ago, around the year 1330.
Apparent size from OpenNGC (Mattia Verga), CC-BY-SA-4.0.
What it is made of
- Type
- Planetary Nebula
- Distance
- Approx. 695 Lightyears
- True size
- Approx. 2.5 Lightyears diameter
- Ionized Hydrogen (H-alpha): Outer red regions
- Ionized Oxygen (OIII): Inner blue-green regions
- Central White Dwarf: Hot remnant star ionizing the nebula
- Cometary Knots: Dense globules of gas and dust with tails
More deep-sky objects: Saturn Nebula (NGC 7009) · Dumbbell Nebula (M27) · Blue Snowball Nebula (NGC 7662) · Ring Nebula (M57) · Little Dumbbell Nebula (M76) · Coalsack Nebula