Image taken in the few hours of visibility on the night of February 15, 2023 from my terrace in Vienna. Bad weather currently doesn't allow you to take the long exposures that these objects deserve from an urban area. The air was humid, even foggy at times, at least there was no moon. I expected a much worse result, given the conditions.


Sh 2-273 Fox Fur Nebula and NGC2264 Christmas Tree Open Cluster

Galactic Coordinates: (202.92°, 2.17°)
The Fox Fur nebula is associated with the Christmas Tree star cluster NGC 2264, dominated by the O7Ve multiple star system S Monocerotis (HD47839 in the annotated version here, also denominated S Mon or 15 Mon).
This region, which is part of the larger Mon OB1 association, also includes the famous Cone nebula, visible at the bottom of the image.
Sh 2-273 is often called the Fox Fur nebula because of the mottled appearance of the nebula near the central cluster. Estimated distance of the nebula is 800pc.
NGC2264 distance estimates range bbetween 600 and 700pc.


The Cone Nebula

Sh 2-273 also contains the famous Cone nebula, a pillar of gas and dust containing the infrared source [MRC90] IRS E embedded in a Bok globule at its tip. The infrared source IRAS 06384+0932 (Allen's source, NGC 2264 IRS 1), which appears to be a hot B-class star about 3500 times more luminous than our Sun, is located just beyond the tip of the Cone nebula and may be creating a stellar wind that energises and shapes the nebula.


NGC 2259

NGC2259, near the top of the picture, is an open cluster discovered by William Herschel in 1787.
Its distance is about 3300pc, and the latest estimates give an age of 316 million years and a diameter of 11ly.


The big picture of a wider area including, on top to Sh2-273, the Mon OB1 and OB2 associations is shown in the picture below.


Picture: Wide Ha (continuum subtracted) view of the area. The pink cross is centered on the cone nebula. The southern bright circular area corresponds to the Rosette nebula.
Image from Aladin App - SHASSA Southern H-alpha Sky Survey Atlas. Healpix map built by D.Paradis (IRAP/CADE)