Images taken on my Vaonis Vespera II portable telescope on the Hotel Balcony, in Funchal, Madeira. 3,550 images, each of 10 secs = total integration time of 9h 52min on 9, 10, 14 & 15 February 2026. I used the Vaonis Dual Band filter.

Per Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_2359
Thor's Helmet is an emission nebula in the constellation Canis Major. The nebula is approximately 12 thousand light years away and 30 light-years in size. The central star is the Wolf-Rayet star WR7, an extremely hot star thought to be in a brief pre-supernova stage of evolution. Interactions with a nearby large molecular cloud are thought to have contributed to the more complex shape and curved bow-shock structure of Thor's Helmet.

The predominant blue / teal colour comes from double ionised oxygen (O III) and the fainter red is from Hydrogen alpha.

The nebula is largely interstellar material swept up by winds from the central star. The expansion rate of different portions of the nebula varies from 10 km/s to at least 30 km/s, leading to age estimates of 78,500 - 236,000 years.