NGC 2359, also called Thor’s Helmet, is an emission nebula that is 15,000 light years away.  It is a bubble of ionized gas around a hot central star, Wolf-Rayet WR7.  It is 16 x 8 arc min in size, and I was pleasantly surprised that I could capture it with my small telescope.  These pictures were made by stacking 64 3 minute images (and cropping).

I’ve been learning PixInsight, and I had some fun with playing with CurvesTransformation on this one.  So, in addition to a standard view of the nebula, I created one I call “Thor in a Snowstorm”.  

Which do you like better?

Camera geek info:

• Canon EOS 60D in manual mode, 179 second exposure, ISO 2000, custom white balance 3500K
• Williams Optics Zenith Star 73 III APO telescope
• Williams Optics Flat 73A
• iOptron CEM40
• Dell City, Texas Bortle 2-3 dark skies

Processing geek info:

• PixInsight
• 64 3 minute lights
• 20 3 minute darks
• 40 0.1 second flats
• 40 0.1 second flat darks