Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Canis Major (CMa)  ·  Contains:  NGC 2359
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NGC 2359 Thor's Helmet and Surrounding Clouds, Jeff Rothstein
NGC 2359 Thor's Helmet and Surrounding Clouds
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NGC 2359 Thor's Helmet and Surrounding Clouds

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NGC 2359 Thor's Helmet and Surrounding Clouds, Jeff Rothstein
NGC 2359 Thor's Helmet and Surrounding Clouds
Powered byPixInsight

NGC 2359 Thor's Helmet and Surrounding Clouds

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Description

NGC 2359, Thor's Helmet, is an emission nebula apparently produced by a super-massive Wolf-Rayet star interacting with a molecular cloud, which would explain its unusual shape (Wikipedia).  It lies about 12,000 light years away.  Its core star is thought to be on the verge of a supernova.

Processed in PixInsight using R-C Astro's tools. Stars and target were separated while linear, processed separately and then recombined with Blanshan and Cranfield's Unscreen Stars script.  I used Local Histogram Equalization and GAME masks to enhance contrast in the brighter parts of the nebula, and a series of Range Masks to keep those bright parts from getting too bright.

I did not rotate the image "horns up" so that the nebula could be appreciated in its own right, without imagining it on Chris Hemsworth's head.

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NGC 2359 Thor's Helmet and Surrounding Clouds, Jeff Rothstein