The Christmas Tree Cluster

Gotta take advantage of clear nights whenever they occur, which, as of late, is not all that frequent. But last evening was one of those nights.

I needed to check out my software and the new camera attachment so I mounted the Hyperstar wide field lens on my EdgeHD11 and setup for some imaging of NGC 2264, the Christmas Tree Cluster.

After taking 30, 180sec subs and processing with Nebulosity, PixInsight and PSP, the result was pretty darn good.  I can improve it some more once I take some flats and re-process the images, but here is the initial result.

NGC 2264 - The Christmas Tree Cluster - February 29, 2016
EdgeHD11 w/Hyperstar - 30x180sec
Imaging camera:  QHY10

NGC 2264 is actually a double object: the Christmas Tree cluster which is a collection of stars whose pattern outlines a slightly upside down Christmas tree, and the Cone Nebula, a diffuse nebula south of the cluster. The cone's shape comes from dark, cold molecular hydrogen and dust in front of a faint emission nebula illuminated by S Monocerotis, the brightest star of NGC 2264.  All of the objects are located in the Monoceros constellation and are located about 800 parsecs or 2600 light-years from Earth.

Down to the lower right is another nebula, NGC 2261 (also known as Hubble's Variable Nebula).  It is illuminated by the star R Monocerotis (R Mon), which is not directly visible itself.  It is believed that the nebula varies in brightness and structure because of dense clouds of dust that periodically block the light from the star.