Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Canis Major (CMa)  ·  Contains:  NGC 2359  ·  Sh2-298
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Thor's Helmet (NGC 2359), John Sojka Jr.
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Thor's Helmet (NGC 2359)

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Thor's Helmet (NGC 2359), John Sojka Jr.
Powered byPixInsight

Thor's Helmet (NGC 2359)

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Description

This dramatic Deep Space Object is one of my favorites, and a difficult target to image. It is an emission nebula in Cannis Major and is approximately 11,960 Light Years from Earth. Its unique shape is owed to the Wolf-Rayet star in the center of the nebula. Wolf-Rayets are among the hottest stars in the Universe and are high producers of heavy elements.

This bi-color image was taken over the course of three months, between February and April 2020 from Sky Meadows State Park, VA, and required a total exposure time of 6 hours. 60+ images were taken at two different wavelengths only emitted by the nebula. The wavelengths are Oxygen III (OIII) at 500.7nm and Hydrogen Alpha (Ha) at 656.28nm. The Hubble Space telescope uses these wavelengths to image the Universe. They are part of "The Hubble Palette". Multiple 5+ minute images are taken at each wavelength. The individual images are later stacked and averaged producing a single, clear image. To create a bi-color image, Ha is mapped to red, and OIII is mapped to green and blue. They are combined to form a final RGB image.

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Thor's Helmet (NGC 2359), John Sojka Jr.

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