Helix Nebula (NGC 7293)

This is a picture of the Helix Nebula taken with our Soka University Nieves Observatory, using our Edge 11″ Celestron telescope operating at a f/2.2 prime focus. The image was taken using a Hyperstar Prime Focus corrector and the ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro Color CMOS camera. The image was a stack of about 30 30-second images and using the ASI-LIVE program from ZWO the images were rotated and combined. With some help from my astrophotographer friend Martin Cohen, we also touched up the background a bit using Photoshop. We were very excited about this type of imaging which I will be folding into my astronomy class in coming semesters.