I took this image of the Helix Nebula in 2021 here in Tsukahara, Japan. A total of 21 hours of subs in Ha and OIII. I tried something new with color masks to bring out some of the faint details in Ha. Adam Block's fine tutorials was the key to this image along with some help from Russell Croman's BXT, NXT, and SXT. Adam was able to bring out the blue, OIII, in the outer shells. I think I need more imaging time to make that possible. In his description of the nebula, he noted near the center of the Helix is a star that is slowly shedding its outer shell as it dies. This creates enormous winds that blow the pillar shaped gasses away from the core of the nebula. What I find fascinating is that these pillars of gas also create shadows (whch can be seen in this image...barely) that look like dark streaks. You have probably seen this nebula on television shows like Cosmos, Nova, Star Trek, etc. as it is quite stunning.
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