Other Names: NGC 2359 and
Gum 4, Thor's Helmet
Optics: Astro-Physics 305mm F/3.8 Riccardi-Honders Astrograph Mount: Paramount ME using The SkyX Pro Camera: FLI ML16200 Filters: Chroma Ha 8nm, OIII 8nm
Exposure: 760 Mins or 12 2/3 hours, [28x 1200s Ha, 10x 1200s OIII], Binned 1x1
Accessories: Auto guided with
SXAO & Starlight Xpress Lodestar.
FLI Atlas focuser using
FocusMax 3.8.0 Location: Southern IN
Date: Taken over several nights from February 17th to March 5th, 2023
Notes: Image acquisition with
TSXPro using
MaxPilote automation software.
All Processing completed using
PixInsight and the following steps:
- WBPP/DBE/StarExt/NoiseXT/PixelMath HOO/ Histogram Transformation/Curves/BlurXT/Multiscale Linear Transformation/Add Stars back using PixelMath/Crop
Calibrated w/18 Darks, 100 Bias, 10 Flats of each filter using a flat pannel. CCD temperature was -30C. Image was taken from my backyard Observatory.
Link to Ha image:
https://astromarina.zenfolio.com/p264248004/hf8329a8b#hf8329a8b NGC 2359 (also known as
Thor's Helmet) is an
emission nebula[3] in the constellation
Canis Major. The nebula is approximately 3,670
parsecs (11.96 thousand light years) away and 30 light-years in size. The central star is the
Wolf-Rayet star WR7, an extremely hot star thought to be in a brief pre-
supernova stage of evolution. It is similar in nature to the
Bubble Nebula, but interactions with a nearby large molecular cloud are thought to have contributed to the more complex shape and curved bow-shock structure of Thor's Helmet.