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![Thor's Helmet](https://www.boldly-going.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Thor-Proc-768x592.png)
Thor’s Helmet
This week’s target was Thor’s Helmet (NGC 2359), an emission nebula in Canis Major a rather distant 12,000 light-years away. It’s formed by a Wolf-Rayet star in its center, which is a crazy-hot star whose immense stellar wind is bunching up and ionizing the gases around it in these complex patterns. It’ll probably go supernova…
![Helix Nebula](https://www.boldly-going.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/HelixFinal-768x584.png)
The Eye of Sauron
The Helix Nebula is also known as the Eye of Sauron or the Eye of God.
![Pelican Nebula](https://www.boldly-going.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/SHOCropHueAdjust-768x607.png)
The Pelican Nebula
Granted this is only a portion of it, but for the life of me I don’t see a pelican in this thing. But, it’s still pretty. I processed this object two ways: using the “Hubble palette” that maps red, green, and blue to Sulfur, Hydrogen, and Oxygen emissions (that results in the pretty blue one)…
![M53](https://www.boldly-going.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/m53-768x630.png)
Another glob.
Here we have another globular cluster: M53. You don’t see this one imaged too often, but it’s still quite pretty. I’ve never met a globular cluster I didn’t like. It’s one of the more distant globular clusters in our galaxy, about 60,000 light-years away.
![The Sun is Looking Angry Today](https://www.boldly-going.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/sun-sharp-proc-768x665.png)
The Sun is Looking Angry Today
That massive sunspot group rivals the size of the one that triggered the Carrington Event in 1859. So far it has kicked off some large coronal mass ejections heading our way, but fortunately nothing on that scale. Let’s hope we just get some pretty auroras from this, and nothing more damaging!
![The Northern Trifid Nebula](https://www.boldly-going.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/NorthernTrifid-768x569.png)
The Northern Trifid Nebula
Formally NGC1570, the “Northern Trifid” is a combination of an emission nebula (the red parts, which is ionized Hydrogen emitting its own light) and a reflection nebula (the blue parts, which is starlight reflecting off dust.) You can also see hints of the dust surrounding this area, which is difficult to capture under the light-polluted…