NGC 2359 Thor's helmet

[doppler]

NGC 2359 (also known as Thor's Helmet) is a bright emission nebula in the constellation Canis Major. Just to the east of Sirius, so well placed for imaging from early evening.

The clouds parted for a while last night so I managed to get 22 x 2min subs at iso1600 on this target. There is plenty of faint stuff there that will come out with longer integration time.

10" F4.8 newt, Heq5 pro, Canon 1100d unmodded, guided with zwo120mc and 50mm finder guider.

[Anth10]

Good stuff Doppler,
It's an interesting object within a rich starfield.
Yes it's a dim neb particularly when trying to capture from the burbs however I would have thought with your 10" it may have been more vivid. I shot this with my scope a year ago with a similar scope as yours and it showed up a lot brighter . I did use a LP filter and modded cam though. This would no doubt enhance the image. In your case then yes, many more subs required but anyways nice image, stars look good too. Could try increasing the ISO to drag out the arms perhaps.

All the best.
Anth

[rustigsmed]

Hi Rick,

Nice effort with the dslr. One of the rare objects that has more O3 than Ha. Good for unmodded dslr's! (2xgreen and 1xblue pixels getting in on the action) -but hard in the heat.

Cheers

Rusty

[doppler]

Thanks guys, I don't think I've done it justice I would have liked to get some longer subs and keep the iso down but the clouds kept coming through and I had to keep pausing the guiding so never really got a chance to optimize the exposures. I just went with what seemed to be working rather than ending up with a lot of test shots. The wet season hasn't kicked in yet so it looks like another clearish night coming up, but the heat is definitely an issue with higher iso's.
Pushed a bit harder in processing, needs more subs or longer subs with lower iso to tame the noise and a bit sharper focus and tighter guiding.

[ChrisV]

Nice. I imagine that sort of colour target has gotta be hard to do on a dslr!

[Anth10]

Rick, that shows a lot more detail now, just proves that the info was always there, nice one looks heaps better.

[bigjoe]

Looks nice ..longer subs and lower ISO for sure will bring out the extensions a tad more..but with light pollution these days thats difficult ; esp with unmodded cameras, and no light pollution filter.

The Astronomik CLS does a good job in helping I have found .
bigjoe.

[doppler]

I dunno, green and blue objects seem to be easier to capture than the red end of the spectrum with unmodded cameras.

[RickS]

Nice going with a DSLR, Rick!

[doppler]

Thanks Rick,
I'll get one of those zwo cooled cameras when they come down to the price of a budget consumer dslr, in a year or so? but for now I'm stuck with the dslr.