NGC 6357, the Lobster Nebula (also known as the War and Peace Nebula), is a large emission nebula and star-forming region in the constellation Scorpius, about 5,500 light-years away. At its heart lies Pismis 24, an open cluster hosting some of the most massive and luminous stars known, whose intense ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds sculpt the surrounding gas into pillars, bubbles, and ionized filaments. This is a deep narrowband image in the SHO (Hubble) palette, rendered in warm gold and orange tones with a blue OIII core.
Captured from Indaiatuba, São Paulo, Brazil, over three consecutive nights with a FotonAstro CFN8 (203 mm f/3.9 Newtonian) and a Sharpstar MPCC coma corrector on a ZWO AM5 mount, using a ZWO ASI2600MM Pro monochrome camera at -10°C. Antlia 3 nm Ha, OIII, and SII narrowband filters. Total integration 10h 40m (Ha: 40 x 300s, OIII: 21 x 600s, SII: 23 x 600s). Processed in PixInsight.