Other Names: Sharpless 2-298 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
Exposure: 560 Mins or 9 1/3 hours, [28x 1200s Ha], 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/ Histogram Transformation/Curves/BlurXT/Multiscale Linear Transformation/Add Stars back using PixelMath/Crop

Calibrated w/18 Darks, 100 Bias, 10 Flats using a flat pannel. CCD temperature was -30C. Image was taken from my backyard Observatory.

Link to HOO image: https://astromarina.zenfolio.com/p52895960/hf831707b#hf831707b


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.