SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

This was one of the Nebula that kept me coming back for more when I was first learning this treacherous sport. But back then, my camera was crap (but didn't know it), and my mount was course at best. That is, when it worked. But I persevered.
So I thought about this Nebula the other night. It took a while to figure it out, because the only thing I could remember was it was nicknamed "Gods Eye". Good old Google got me to the Helix Nebula, NGC 7293 .
I saw it was in a very favorable aim for my backyard observatory, so I was on it like a rat on cheese.
Last night I decided to let the horses run and got up to 4800 seconds of images piled in before the Meridian loomed and I decided to call it quits.
80 minutes of images. Each 120 seconds. Up to 40 of each.
Just a nice night of picking one object, then coming inside and connecting the two Dells to sit here in a warm house.

When I stopped the Helix Nebula, and returned the telescope to "home", I noticed the Double Cluster that Marc had imaged was right there near Polaris. So I took a couple of shorts on them to see how my FOV might compare to Marc's. So this are following the Helix here.

Helix Nebula 10 120s 1200s Tinkering with the color got me this oddball image.

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Helix Nebula 15 120s 1800s Back to Auto Adjust, I kept stacking with time.

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Helix Nebula 30 120s 3600s A bit more saturation.

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Helix Nebula 35 120s 4200s Still pushing, 70 minutes

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Helix Nebula 40 120s 4800s Last file before the Meridian Flip was eminent. I stopped here.

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And with some pp my rendition of the last image at 80 minutes.

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And a simple fleeting moment image of the Double Cluster, so I could do a comparison to Marc's Wide-field image. I saw it was right next to Polaris as I was getting ready to call it a night.

(Download)

Europa Loc: West Hills, CA

Dang, you are on a roll.

J-SPEIGHT Loc: Akron, Ohio

alberio Loc: Casa Grande AZ

I actually like #3 the best. Were you shooting through high clouds? To me it adds reality to the frustrations of astrophotography.

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Actually, no clouds that I could see.
But our neighbors put up several strings of clear Christmas lights under their patio cover last winter. They never took them down. And I have to shoot past them, so my best guess is light pollution.
I do use a Badder Light Pollution Filter all the time in my imaging train, just to help with the native light pollution of being in the scity. Although, I am on the edge.
Each of the images represent points where I saved the image being taken. Number 3 is 30 images, each 120s long, and a total 3600 seconds of stacked images. Or 60 minutes of images (1 hour).
The Infinity camera stacks the images as it cycles. 120s is the longest, without using special settings to do longer. I've tried it, but it just increases the hot pixels in the images.
By stacking the images, it increases the clarity of the object by increasing the photons collected by the sensor.
So I save images as they reach levels of stacking, typically in even points. Like 5, 10, 15, 20, etc.
The difference is the amount of saturation of the subject.

alberio Loc: Casa Grande AZ

Thanks SonnyE

Albuqshutterbug Loc: Albuquerque NM

Nicely done and nicely explained for the newbies I am seeing.

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Thank You, Jim!
I got a huge amount of help from everybody here when I ventured into this babbling in the dark sport.

Time to give back. (As long as it doesn't get too boring as I Babylon.)

The very biggest thing I've found it takes is... Patience.