Image centered on Ra 07-18-30 Dec-13-13-30
Thors Helmet (NGC 2359)
Information
Some Scientists Believe that NGC 5329 is a large "bubble" of luminous gas surrounding a Wolf-Rayet star. The gas actually glows when radiation from the nearby star strikes molecules within the gas creating an ionized state. The Ionized molecules eventually return to their normal state by re-emitting the extra energy in the form of visible light. The light is extremely diffuse and virtually invisible to the naked eye. The sensitive detector within my Imager registers the very weak photons from objects such as this over long periods of time thus making nearly invisible objects visible.
The Color image is a composite synthetic color image produced by combining The Hydrogen Alpha emissions with OIII emissions in such a ways as to produce a synthetic green channel. The Hydrogen Alpha image is used to produce a red channel and the OIII image is used to produce a blue channel. All three color channels are then blended using photoshop to produce a color image.
Optics - Exposure information
Telescope, Celestron 9.25 at F6.3 using Meade focal reducer and a Starlight-Xpress adaptive optics system for guiding.
Mount, Losmandy G11 with Gemini control electronics
Imager, Starlite-Xpress SXV-h9 using an 10 nm Ha filter and Schuler 15nm OIII filter
Exposure data, Ha = 90 minutes total with 5 min subexposures, OIII = 90 minutes @ 5 min subs
Images acquired with Astroart and aligned then combined in Maxim Dl. Final RGB composite processed with Photoshop Cs
Images acquired from my backyard - " Dirt Clod Observatory" in Antelope California
