by Hrishikesh Karvir 

I recently had the chance to image Helix Nebula and M101 on August 16 from the Cherry Springs overnight observation field. Conditions were pretty good overall, but tracking wasn’t great due to heavy dew throughout the night. Despite that, I was happy with how the images turned out, especially the Helix Nebula, which came out slightly better of the two.

What I found particularly interesting was that both images visibly resolved smaller galaxies within the fields. For example, the 2MFGC 16944 galaxy can be seen within the outer edge of the Helix Nebula, near the top-left corner in the red hydrogen-alpha emission. It’s always fun when an image reveals a little more than what you were initially looking for!

Both images were taken with the following equipment
Scope: Celestron EdgeHD 9.25 [Focal Length: 2350mm, Aperture: 235 mm, f/10]
Mount: Orion Atlas II
Camera: ZWO ASI 2600MC Duo Pro [No filters]
Guide Scope: SVBony SV160 [Focal Length = 120 mm, aperture 30 mm, f/4]
Guide Camera: SVBony 305 
Imaging Computer: Raspberry pi 4B – Image capture with KStars and guiding with PHD2

Post processing done with PixInsight