Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Canis Major (CMa)  ·  Contains:  30 CMa  ·  NGC 2362  ·  NGC 2367  ·  The star 29 CMa  ·  The star τ CMa
Sh2-310 Giant HII Region in the Hubble Palette, David Elmore
Sh2-310 Giant HII Region in the Hubble Palette
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Sh2-310 Giant HII Region in the Hubble Palette

Sh2-310 Giant HII Region in the Hubble Palette, David Elmore
Sh2-310 Giant HII Region in the Hubble Palette
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Sh2-310 Giant HII Region in the Hubble Palette

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Description

At the feet of Canis Major is one of the largest HII regions in the sky, Sharpless 2-310   Sh2-310 spans most of this 7.4° x 3.2° field of view.  Hydrogen atoms are ionized by the two extremely hot and intrinsically bright star clusters, center top.  One of these tau Canis Majoris has blown out a hole in the nebula. As the hydrogen nuclei (protons) re-capture electrons light is emitted as the electrons tumble from higher to lower energy states.  Much of the light here is from Hydrogen-alpha (3>2) colored green.  Other atomic species are ionized and much of the remaining light here is from Sulfur II colored red here.  There is a hint of teal Oxygen III, here colored blue, that when combined with hydrogen and sulfur make some regions appear white.   This SHO Hubble Palette seems to differentiate well the three atomic species composing the image.

There are a number of other designations for this region. The rightmost filament is LBN 1063.  Middle ‘arrow head’ is LBN 1059.  Center left is LBN 1067.  The wisp in lower left is LBN 1057.  Upper left is LBN 1054.

This is a two panel mosaic composed of 14 + 14 H-alpha, 8 + 9 Oxygen III, and 7 + 9 Sulfur II exposures, each 10 minutes for a total of more than 10 hours of integration from my little observatory at Dark Sky New Mexico.
Borg 107FL F/3.9 refractor, ASI6200MM Pro camera, Chroma 3nm passband filters for fast optics.

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Sh2-310 Giant HII Region in the Hubble Palette, David Elmore