Instrument

Celestron C11 @  ~f/10.48 (2930 mm fl) 1.26 arcsec / pixel.  Resampled to  2.52 arcsec / pixel

Mount

Paramount ME

Camera

SBIG STL-11000 w/ internal filer wheel, AstroDon Filters

Acquisition Data

1/30/2008 & 2/5/2008  Chino Valley... with CCDAutoPilot3

Exposure

H-Alpha  150 min.  ( 5 x 30 bin 2x2)  Needs about 450 min.

Software

CCDSoft, Sigma-Clip, Photoshop CS w/ the Fits Liberator plugin, and Noel Carboni's actions

North is to the left.

Thor's Helmet is about 30 light-years across. The helmet is actually more like an interstellar bubble, blown as a fast wind from the bright, massive star near the bubble's center sweeps through a surrounding molecular cloud. Known as a Wolf-Rayet star, the central star is an extremely hot giant thought to be in a brief, pre-supernova stage of evolution. The nebula is located about 15,000 light-years away in the constellation Canis Major.

Source: NASA APOD