NGC 6543, the Cat's Eye Nebula

NGC 6543, the Cat's Eye Nebula, is a planetary nebula located in the constellation Draco. Planetary nebulas are remnants of a star at the end of it's life. A star similar to our Sun. It blows off it's outer shells forming the nebula. The core of the star collapses to form a dense hot white dwarf. The radiation from the white dwarf excites the gas in the nebula causing it to glow. (NASA Science)

The Cat's Eye Nebula was a favorite object for me to observe when I was a staff telescope operator at Lick Observatory. I frequently observed it through the 36 Inch Great Refractor and the Nickel's 1-M Reflector. I did so during public events at the observatory.

What is interesting is that viewing the Cat's Eye through these telescopes you only see the inner bright core, about 1/3.. The dimmer halo with tendrils that composes most of the nebula is not visible.

Image processed by Andrew F. Macica, original data from Telescope Live.

Imaging Details:

Observatory: Oria, Spain

Telescope: Officina Stellare 700 RC

Aperture: 700 mm (27.5 inches), f/8

Focal Length: 5600 mm

Camera: QHY 600M Pro CMOS

Filters: LRGB

Total Exposure: 8 hours 0 min.

Image Processing: PixInsight 1.8.9-3 Ripley (x64);

BlurXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator (RC Astro);

Adobe Photoshop 25.12.1;

Adobe Lightroom Classic 14.2

Instruction on PixInsight from Adam Block Studios.