CG 4 - Hand of God Nebula

Hand of God Nebula (CG 4)

Taken with Celestron Origin. 230 subs at 60 Sec each - 1000 ISO – clear filter. Approximately 3¾ hours of data. Around Bortle 2 or 3. 

Taken: West Taratahi Hall, Chester Rd, Masterton, NZ.

March 2026.

Another processed image using previous data.

Stacked and processed in Siril, using Statistical Stretch, RC-Astro, Cosmic Clarity and Veralux Scripts.

To me, it looks like a serpent mouth reaching out to swallow the galaxy.

CG 4 (Cometary Globule 4), known as the "Hand of God" or "Jaws of the Beast," is a striking, 8 light-year-long star-forming region in the constellation Puppis, located about 1,300 light-years away. This dense cloud of gas and dust appears to be "reaching" toward a distant galaxy (PGC 21338), though this is a chance alignment.

The "Monster" Illusion: In many long-exposure photographs, the "mouth" of the cometary globule CG 4 appears to be about to "devour" PGC 21338. However, this is purely a perspective effect; CG 4 is part of our own Milky Way galaxy and is only about 1,300 light-years away, meaning the galaxy is roughly 100,000 times further away than the nebula.