Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Canis Major (CMa)  ·  Contains:  HD56234  ·  HD56257  ·  HD56274  ·  HD56500  ·  HD56501  ·  HD56547  ·  HD56548  ·  HD56574  ·  HD56594  ·  HD56595  ·  HD56771  ·  HD56772  ·  HD56829  ·  HD56830  ·  HD56831  ·  HD56970  ·  HD57008  ·  HD57009  ·  HD57027  ·  HD57057  ·  HD57083  ·  HD57084  ·  HD57256  ·  HD57369  ·  HD57522  ·  HD57569  ·  HD57635  ·  IC 468  ·  LBN 1040  ·  LBN 1041  ·  And 2 more.
Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC 2359 - Thor's Helmet, Monty Chandler
Powered byPixInsight
Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC 2359 - Thor's Helmet, Monty Chandler
Powered byPixInsight

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

Thor's Helmet Nebula is an emission nebula located in the consteallation Canis Major, the Great Dog.  For those of us in the northern hemisphere this places Thor very low in our southern sky during the winter months. This visually striking nebula, with its bubble shape and wing-like filaments, looks a lot like the helmet worn by the norse god of thunder, Thor.  It's appealing, big, and it's bright making it a popular target for astrophotographers.  

NGC 2359 spans 30 light-years and is approximately 12,000 light-years from earth.  At its core is WR7, over 280,000 times brighter than our sun.  WR7 is an extremely hot star thought to be in a brief pre-supernova stage of evolution. Thor is largely interstellar material swept up by winds from the central star, although some material does appear to be enriched with the products of fusion and is likely to come directly from the star.

Imaged with an Esprit 120ED, ASI2600MC, Eq6r Pro, Polemaster, Senso Sesto 2, ASI290mm mini, ZWO OAG

Image acquisition via APT, guiding via PHD2, Processed manually in Pixinsight.

Comments

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

NGC 2359 - Thor's Helmet, Monty Chandler