NGC 6543 - Cat's Eye Nebula

I first tried imaging this nebula back in August 2023, with the RASA 11. With such a wide field setup, and 4 hours of exposure, the Cat's Eye was tiny. I could barely make out any detail. But it was an intriguing enough object that I knew I'd have to return.

So two years later, this time with an f/11 setup, I captured about 23 hours of data - still with a color sensor. This time, I got a much better result. The closer I get to this place, the weirder it looks. Being a lot smaller than most of the other nebulae we've explored together, it's hard to get close and personal with the Cat's Eye. It's a few thousand light years distant in the northern part of the sky, winding its way through the constellation Draco (the Dragon). Like other so-called planetary nebulae, what we're seeing here is a dying star that in its convulsions has expelled its outer layers in a series of bursts to produce this extraordinary view.

It is, for sure, one of the most complex and weird objects I've tried to photograph. And it was actually more difficult than I expected to process, because the core is so surprisingly bright. The challenge was to enhance the fainter nebulous surroundings without completely blowing out the bright center. 

I believe that the weirdly shaped core is due to the intense magnetism of the central star, with the resulting energetic particles carving out those bubble shapes in the core. It's possible there might be a second, invisible companion star hiding in that glare, making the jets of gas wobble around like a broken sprinkler.

The detail here is tantalizing, because as beautiful as it looks, I feel like I need to revisit this area again with a deeper look when I switch over to narrowband imaging. There's a good possibility, I think, that I can get an even clearer view with a little hard work and patience. 
It's a lovely sight, isn't it? The predominant color is obviously a greenish blue, from all of the doubly ionized oxygen (OIII), but there's also a little red from hydrogen (H-alpha) and nitrogen. 

As material pushes outwards from the central star, it's affected by strong stellar winds, shock waves and magnetic fields which together cause all these crazy twists and tangles that add to the eerie intricacy of this galactic wonder! (I'm a poet, and I didn't know it!) 

Just finished processing the image this evening, so it hasn't yet been posted to the gallery.