Helix Nebula NGC 7293

You know, friends, probably all people who have a hobby have had a turning point or an event thanks to which they still pursue their favorite activity. Something that amazed and was remembered for many years. For me, it was the photographs in astronomy books of objects such as the Orion Nebula, the Horsehead Nebula, the Whirlpool Galaxy, Saturn with its rings, and, of course, the Helix Nebula. I dreamed of photographing the latter since last summer, tried to capture it twice this summer, but unsuccessfully: due to the high temperature, dust particles rise high into the sky in summer, and the light from distant space objects scatters on these particles, causing the sky to become grayish and low in contrast. This, in turn, directly affects the quality of the background in astrophotography and on guiding. Furthermore, this nebula in our area does not rise high above the horizon, and its culmination passes over the same part of the sky where a nearby residential area is located. And as many understand, light pollution from artificial lighting negates the enormous efforts of astrophotographers to collect as much light as possible from distant galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters. However, I did not abandon this idea and literally yesterday decided to photograph this interesting object once more. This time, I was very lucky: calm weather, not too high a temperature, and a fairly long night allowed me to take a rather good series of shots.