NGC 2264 - The Christmas Tree cluster and its associated nebulae (Rainer Raupach)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Monoceros (Mon) · Contains: 15 S Mon · Christmas Tree Cluster · LBN 911 · LBN 912 · LDN 1613 · NGC 2264 · PGC 2818863 · Sh2-273 · The star 15 Mon

Image of the day 02/11/2024

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NGC 2264 - The Christmas Tree cluster and its associated nebulae

Image of the day 02/11/2024

Powered byPixInsight

NGC 2264 - The Christmas Tree cluster and its associated nebulae

Acquired just in time before Christmas: NGC 2264, the Christmas Tree Cluster, along with the surrounding HII region, the Cone Nebula (the dark nebula at the top, a stellar nursery), and the diffuse nebulae scattered throughout the area.

To provide a bit more information beyond what can be gleaned from Wikipedia: The open star cluster is very young, thus harboring several massive O and B stars. Current research is underway utilizing Gaia data (data releases 2 & 3) to study the 3D kinematics of the cluster and molecular clouds, focusing on "runaways" and "walkaways" — stars that have left the cluster due to dynamic processes. As the terminology suggests, "runaways" are those with higher relative velocities, while "walkaways" have slower velocities. The kinematics of these stars can be used to reconstruct initial conditions of models (e.g., stellar densities and structuring). Furthermore, the Cone Nebula, in particular, is of interest as a stellar nursery and will certainly receive attention in the near future with new infrared telescopes, especially the JWST.

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	9137028
PixInsight job	A42M9V05BGL27OK8I8FHX9NX66MUK7YR
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	06h40m45s.927
RA (top/left)	06h42m15s.700
RA (top/right)	06h42m10s.154
RA (bottom/right)	06h39m15s.719
RA (bottom/left)	06h39m22s.740

Dec (center)	+09°46′50″.10
Dec (top/left)	+09°14′11″.32
Dec (top/right)	+10°20′22″.83
Dec (bottom/right)	+10°19′27″.43
Dec (bottom/left)	+09°13′14″.16

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Image of the day 02/11/2024

NGC 2264 - The Christmas Tree cluster and its associated nebulae

Image of the day 02/11/2024

NGC 2264 - The Christmas Tree cluster and its associated nebulae

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Image of the day 02/11/2024

NGC 2264 - The Christmas Tree cluster and its associated nebulae

Image of the day 02/11/2024

NGC 2264 - The Christmas Tree cluster and its associated nebulae

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