ASTRO: Faint fuzzy stuff surrounding the Helix Nebula

I was using my AP180EDT at the ranch this past weekend: using a polar
alignment from a month ago. I have concluded that the mount settled a bit in
the dirt pasture where my rig is set up, and that is why the stars are
tailed. They looked fine in the focus shots and guiding was good too.

The dark skies let me capture some faint stuff around the nebula. What's
that blob at 10 o'clock and that vortex at 8 oclock?

Richard Crisp wrote:
I was using my AP180EDT at the ranch this past weekend: using a polar
alignment from a month ago. I have concluded that the mount settled a bit in
the dirt pasture where my rig is set up, and that is why the stars are
tailed. They looked fine in the focus shots and guiding was good too.

The dark skies let me capture some faint stuff around the nebula. What's
that blob at 10 o'clock and that vortex at 8 oclock?

I can't find either on anything I have nor did SIMBAD or NED have
anything at their position. This taken in H-alpha or white light?

Looking at the POSS plates the blob is red so likely nebula rather than
a distant galaxy. A dense piece of interstellar space hit by the shock
front of the expanding shell?

Odd I'd not noticed it before.

At -20 degrees this guy is just too far south for me to get anything but
a low resolution shot. I tried a couple years ago on a night of great
seeing but had to half size it to get anything worth looking at and that
wasn't good. Extinction and air glow that low hid any trace of the
outer shell let alone your fuzzy blob and vortex.

Stars on the left side look a bit worse than those on the right which
look pretty good. I wonder if the camera wasn't quite square rather
than a sinking mount. Though that was always a problem for me here
before building the observatory. I had to lay a 8'x10' base below frost
line to support the 16' column the scope is on to make sure it didn't
continue to sag. Still I see a bit of change. Looks about 20" off from
where it was last year from long term drift measurements. Might just be
temperature differences as this is getting pretty picky!

Rick


--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".

Nice image! With the faint fuzzys it almost is twice as big as what we
normally see it in most images.

Joe


"Richard Crisp" wrote in message
...
I was using my AP180EDT at the ranch this past weekend: using a polar
alignment from a month ago. I have concluded that the mount settled a bit
in
the dirt pasture where my rig is set up, and that is why the stars are
tailed. They looked fine in the focus shots and guiding was good too.

The dark skies let me capture some faint stuff around the nebula. What's
that blob at 10 o'clock and that vortex at 8 oclock?

Richard,

looks like you got a third shell.
I have seen the blob at 10 o'clock on other pictures, but none of them had
the combination of depth/detail/field to show it's nature. If it wasn't red
in colour pictures I would guess that it is a galaxy.

Stefan

"Richard Crisp" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
I was using my AP180EDT at the ranch this past weekend: using a polar
alignment from a month ago. I have concluded that the mount settled a bit
in the dirt pasture where my rig is set up, and that is why the stars are
tailed. They looked fine in the focus shots and guiding was good too.

The dark skies let me capture some faint stuff around the nebula. What's
that blob at 10 o'clock and that vortex at 8 oclock?