Sh 2-308 is commonly known as the Dolphin-Head Nebula. It is an H II region located near the center of the constellation Canis Major. The region is composed of ionized hydrogen. It is about 8 degrees south of Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky.
The nebula is bubble-like and surrounds a Wolf–Rayet star named EZ Canis Majoris. This star is in the brief, pre-supernova phase of its stellar evolution.
Sh2-308 sits at a declination of -23 degrees, which means it’s just above my tree tops to the south. Unobstructed for a couple of hours per night it takes a while to gather significant data. With weather, life and the moon impacts this will be all I get of it this year.
Astrobin view of all objects in this photo.
The image consists of 67 5 minute exposures captured using APT 4.60 over 3 nights in Feb ’25.
Calibration, registration, integration and processing manually in PixInsight.
