NGC 2264 The Cone Nebula (Kent DeGroff)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Monoceros (Mon)

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NGC 2264 The Cone Nebula

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NGC 2264 The Cone Nebula

This nebula is part of the Christmas Tree Cluster of bright stars. Other nebulae in this cluster include the Fox Fur Nebula and the Snowflake Cluster (both out of the field of view). S Monocerotis, a massive, bright star at the base of the cluster and also out of the field of view, provides much of the energy required to make this an emission nebula. The cone's shape comes from the cold molecular hydrogen and dust in front of the emission nebula. It's about 7 light years long and is 2700 light years away.

There is a Bok Globule at the head of the cone and there is a presumably energetic source of solar wind-style particles blowing by. Speculatively, it looks like something between the head and the other yellowish region above might be the source since flow lines seem to be roughly aligned in that direction. Notice the feathery appearance within the cone, another indication of "wind" effect. The yellow areas have a preponderance of nearby yellow stars causing a yellowish reflection off dust. Three yellow stars can be seen in the head of the cone.

This image was redone from data taken in 2018 using AI processing steps.

Subs: 32x300s L binned 1x1, 21x90s RGB binned 2x2, Total integration: 4.2 hrs
Instrumentation: 457mm F/4.2 Newtonian, Baader MPCC and LRGB filters, SBIG 8300M camera, OAG, ZWO ASI290MM guider, Robofocus, AP 1200 GTO mount
Acquisition software: SGP, PHD2
Processing: PixInsight, Starnet,Topaz Denoise AI, GIMP

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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.

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Status	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	8724874
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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NGC 2264 The Cone Nebula

NGC 2264 The Cone Nebula

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NGC 2264 The Cone Nebula

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