The mighty Thor has fallen - NGC2359 - Thor's Helmet Nebula

[Elp]

Following on from my widefield attempt of Thor's Helmet Nebula together with the Seagull Nebula closing out last year:

I decided to carry on imaging this unique looking nebula. I wanted to try this at F6.3 reduced with my C6 (1000mm FL), it is amazing the difference in detail you can resolve compared to my other setups. I also setup the Z61 a few times to help with speed and eventually finished off with the Hyperstar only recently. Due to very bad weather (unusually high winds for long periods, bringing further cloud and rain) this has taken much longer than I wanted to, but I continued to perservere.

Eventually I dismissed the F6.3 C6 data, as it was too dim due to short capture times (I could only image for 1-1.5 hours at a time from my usual bortle 7 location) and eventually I couldn't see the target anymore so had to recapture O3 off site. Eventually I'd like to add RGB stars back in to complete it, but like the starless look.

In total, I used 2 sessions of Ha from my Z61 (370mm FL) and 1 session from my C6 HS6 (307mm FL), so quite short, and also for a small-ish target. I'm done with it for this year, likely will continue later 2023.

Hope you enjoy (due to its size of capture, looks better zoomed out slightly), and also don't dismiss those small telescopes as they can do more than you may think.

Edited April 10, 2023 by Elp

[VirgoCluster25]

i have done my research on space for more then 3 years now. But i have never done my research on nebulas. I have wanted to do so for a while now but im sure the out come of this will be very interesting. May i ask how far away the thor's helemet nebula is?

[VirgoCluster25]

i have looked into the tarantula nebula though. Not for very long though. I found its size and whats found inside of it of which has interested me and convinced me to do more research on it.

[Elp]

That's a target I want to image in great detail sometime. Sizes and distances are quite surprising because we effectively see them in a 2D plane, a bit like Orion's belt looks like three stars in line, but they're actually very far apart in depth distance. Details of distance and sizes are in my other post linked above.