This picture was taken from my backyard during two nights of full moon, with the moon about 65 degrees from target, plus one final night of foggy weather. I had no illusions about the quality of the result, given the poor shooting conditions, however I was hoping to get a little more detail. You know, the hope for a miracle is always there! A seasoned astro-photographer would have folded on this target on those nights, but I am still in a phase in which I still give priority to quantity, I am still greedy to meet and know as many celestial objects and landscapes as I can.

The Angel Pareidolia

Specially in the starless version, the illusion (Pareidolia from the greek  εἴδωλον èidōlon, "image", with the prefix παρά parà, "close") of a human shape is pretty evident. The face in red is particularly impressive to me.



Monoceros Molecular Cloud Complex R2

The Monoceros Molecular Cloud Complex R2, also known as the Monoceros Molecular Cloud R2, is a predominantly unilluminated giant molecular cloud, located in the southwestern part of the constellation the Unicorn; it is a dust system located at a very high galactic latitude, below the plane of the Milky Way, about 830 parsecs (2700 light years) from the solar system.

The most notable feature of the complex is the presence of a large number of reflection nebulae, illuminated by the hot blue stars of the Monoceros R2 association, an OB association formed by the same gases it now gives light; these stars, which are part of the first cycle of star formation of the complex, give the gas a markedly bluish color.

A recent cycle of star formation is taking place in the heart of the nebulous complex, as evidenced by the presence of a rich open cluster in formation consisting mainly of low and medium mass stars, clearly visible in the infrared band surveys.

The central region of the nebulous complex is located in coincidence with the clouds VdB 67 and VdB 69, in which star formation phenomena are active.
(Excerpted and translated from Wikipedia Italy)


Picture:=mw-mmv-title R2 Monoceros complex Map. Author Roberto Mura. Source Wikipedia Italy