Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Canis Major (CMa)  ·  Contains:  IC 468  ·  NGC 2359  ·  Sh2-298
Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC 2359, Thor's Helmet, HO Bicolor+HGB Stars; 1, 11-12 Feb 2019, David Dearden
Powered byPixInsight

NGC 2359, Thor's Helmet, HO Bicolor+HGB Stars; 1, 11-12 Feb 2019

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC 2359, Thor's Helmet, HO Bicolor+HGB Stars; 1, 11-12 Feb 2019, David Dearden
Powered byPixInsight

NGC 2359, Thor's Helmet, HO Bicolor+HGB Stars; 1, 11-12 Feb 2019

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

11,960 LY

This image came toward the end of a stretch of clear weather, so could have used a bit more integration, compounded by a slipping focuser, which caused me to lose quite a few subs. I was amazed to see how bright this object is in OIII. I used the Hα in place of red to make the RGB, bicolor processed the HO in Annie’s Astro Actions, then screen combined the HGB on top of the HO for the final image, with a few rounds of additional noise reduction. This was also my first use of StarTools 1.4.341. I had to pull some tricks (making an alias of the executable within the file package) get it to launch, but it works. The resemblance to Thor’s helmet is obvious, but I don’t see a duck; I see Ms. PacMan! At almost 12,000 light years, this object is relatively far away for a deep sky object in our galaxy. Wolf-Rayet stars make some of the most beautiful things in the sky in my opinion.

Date: 1, 11, 12 Feb 2019

Subject: NGC 2359, Thor’s Helmet, Duck Nebula

Scope: AT8IN+High Point Scientific Coma Corrector

Filters: ZWO 31 mm diameter unmounted 7 nm Hα, OIII, G, B

Mount: EQ-6 (EQMOD 2.000j)+PEC

Guiding: Orion Thin Off-axis Guider + DSI IIc +PHD 2.6.5dev6 (Win 10 ASCOM)

Camera: ASI1600MM-Cool, -20 °C, Gain 139 Offset 21

Acquisition: Sequence Generator Pro 3.0.3.151

Exposure: 30x300 Hα, 28x300 OIII, 15x180 G, 11x180 B

Stacking: Deep Sky Stacker 4.1.1 (64-bit) dark+flat (no bias), κ-σ stacking with κ = 1.5.

Processing: StarTools 1.4.341: Separately processed Hα, OIII, G, & B. Software binned 2x2, cropped, wiped, developed, HDR optimized, star masked deconvolution, untrack denoised. Combined HO using Annie’s Astro Actions, HGB combination in StarTools. Screen combined HGB on top of HO in Photoshop. Deep space noise reduction (several times). Make stars smaller (several times). AstroFrame.

Comments

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

NGC 2359, Thor's Helmet, HO Bicolor+HGB Stars; 1, 11-12 Feb 2019, David Dearden