This beautiful area is situated just west of the more famous
Cone Nebula region. It has it all: fluorescing Ha, lanes of obscuring dust, reflection nebulae, and a rich star field that includes the open cluster Trumpler 5 (Collinder 105).
Situated 11,000 light years from us, far behind the Cone Nebula region 2,700 light years away, Trumpler 5 is an exceptionally old open cluster. Based on the metallicity of its stars, the age of this cluster has been
estimated at five billion years, an incredible age for open clusters, which normally disperse after some hundreds of millions of years. In this instance, the mass of the cluster is enough to resist dispersion and retain the bulk of its stars, which have been unable to gain escape velocity from the gravitational interactions within the cluster. Its yellow color is due in part to the age of its stars, as well as reddening from the gas and dust in the region. The brightest member of Trumpler 5 is V493 Mon, a beautiful carbon star. Trumpler 5 is the concentration of stars at the upper right of this image.
The dark lanes are components of
Barnard 37, 38, or 39. Reflection nebulae grace the edges of this black void, which almost completely obscures the rich Milky Way star field behind it, making the region resemble a night scene seen from above. A dark river runs from the inland metropolis of IC 2169 / IC 447, emptying into the dark sea at the port of IC 2167 / IC 446. Farther up the coast, the cities of NGC 2245 and NGC 2247 glisten brightly, beckoning the bright lights of the starry ships at sea to come home.
Image acquired at Prairie Sky Observatory, a facility of Twin City Amateur Astronomers (tcaa.us).
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