The eye in the sky...watching us all

[annabanana]

I saw this picture on APOD and thought it might be appreciated here.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/

(for 12/29)

[HereSince1628]

1. Oh! Take off the ring Frodo!

[annabanana]

2. three light years wide..

pretty big bad guy...

[4morewars]

3. Nice !!!

I love that site, thanks for posting !
That's going to make a nice desktop !
I wonder if I can see it with my telescope ?

[pmbryant]

4. The Helix Nebula. You might be able to see it with your telescope.

http://www.seds.org/messier/xtra/ngc/n7293.html

The Helix Nebula is one of the closest of all planetary nebulae: Lying at a distance of perhaps 450 light years, it is the only planetary nebula for which a parallax could be obtained by ground-based observations. Nevertheless, its distance is quite uncertain: The first determination by A. Van Maanen yielded about 85 light-years, Becvar (1961) has 590, L. Kohoutek (1962) 280, I.S. Shlovskii (1956) and P.A. Ianna & H.A. McAlister (1974) 160, the Sky Catalogue 2000.0 gives about 300 ly, and C.R. O'Dell (1963) obtains 450 light-years.

It is also one of the apparently largest planetaries known: Its apparent size covers an area of 16 arc minutes diameter, more than half of that of the full moon; it halo extends even further to 28 arc minutes or almost the moon's apparent diameter (These dimensions were taken from Stephen J. Hynes who quotes AAT and ESO photos). Although the nebula is quite bright, its light is spread over this large area so that it is not an easy object for visual observing; the Herschels have apparently never cataloged or observed it.

The popular name Helix Nebula refers to the nebula's appearance on photographs.

[4morewars]

6. If the cloud cover ever breaks !

I'm in michigan, it seems we have clouds 9 days out of 10 . That one clear night it was like 5 below !

PS: (dork alert) Helix is a character on Star Trek Voyager !

[Left Brain]

5. Wow!

That's both gorgeous and amazing. Thanks for the treat!