NGC 2264 - Cone Nebula and Christmas Tree Cluster in HOS (Uwe Deutermann)

NGC 2264 - Cone Nebula and Christmas Tree Cluster in HOS

Always liked this object and finally had some time to get some images for it. Started with Hα, OIII is planned for tonight. Revamping as well some standard processing techniques to see if I can get a bit better images together.

Wikipedia: NGC2264 is the location where the Cone Nebula, The Stellar Snowflake Cluster and the Christmas Tree Cluster have formed in this emission nebula. For reference, the Stellar Snowflake Cluster is located 2,700 light years away in the constellation Monoceros.

The Christmas Tree star formation consists of young stars obscured by heavy layers of dust clouds. These dust clouds, along with hydrogen and helium are producing luminous new stars. The combination of dense clouds and an array of colors creates a color map filled with varying wavelengths.

B

Description: First integration try for a Bi-Color version of NGC 2264. Not really very happy with it, but for the first try not too bad. The halos around the brighter stars in OIII are not nice 😒. Have to get an idea how to get rid of them.

Uploaded: ...

C

Description: Again, first try to get a decent HSO image together. There are still several flaws in the image, but it took already quite some time and I think it is worth posting. To deal with gradients is the biggest challenge!

Uploaded: ...

D

Description: Second try for an HSO/SHO image of the Cone Nebula and Christmas Tree Cluster. This time I did not correct any halos around the stars and one can see it. This object is very interesting to process, many variations, hence a lot of fun 😊.

Uploaded: ...

E

Description: Final version for now. Mixed HSO and SHO images to obtain nicer colors. I still have 1 more hour of Hα data ready to incorporate, but for now this is it 😊.

Uploaded: ...

F

Description: I did not like the "rusty" color, hence another version.

Uploaded: ...

G

Description: Normalized the 3 channels before merging them together as HSO. No star reduction.

Uploaded: ...

ZWO ASI1600MM/QHY163M
Narrowband imaging
AstroBin Platform open discussions community forum

	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

	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

	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

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	Basic failed
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	2463469
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):