A total rework of my old dataset from December 2018

Wide field view of some nearby cosmic gems - Cone Nebula, Fox Fur, Snowflake Nebula, Christmas Tree Star Cluster and variable nebula NGC 2261, NGC 2259 open star cluster - as imaged by me on December 14 at Negev Desert.

The Christmas Tree Cluster is a young open cluster located in the constellation Monoceros. It is part of the NGC 2264 region, along with the Cone Nebula and the Fox Fur Nebula, and belongs to a loose association of very young stars located in the Orion Arm of the Milky Way.

The Cone Nebula (seen as just one small feature of this large image) is a giant pillar of gas and dust, which was named for its conical shape, which is a result of a dark nebula absorbing the light of an emission nebula that lies behind it. The Cone Nebula resembles the better known Pillars of Creation, a star forming region made famous by the Hubble image in 1995, located in the Eagle Nebula (M16). Pillar structures like these, formed of cold gas, are common in large star forming regions and believed to be incubators for very young stars. The Cone Nebula was discovered by the German-British astronomer William Herschel on December 26, 1785, almost two years after he had discovered the Christmas Tree Cluster.

The Fox Fur Nebula is an H II region, lies at an approximate distance of 2,700 light years from Earth. It was named the Fox Fur because of its appearance. The texture and color of the nebula resemble the head of a red fox stole. The Fox Fur Nebula contains enormous quantities of interstellar dust and gas, which are illuminated by the massive young stars that are being formed within the nebula’s thick clouds. The nebula’s red glow is a result of hydrogen gas being stimulated to emit its own light by the strong ultraviolet radiation from the massive, young, hot blue stars in the cluster. The nebula’s blue areas are composed mainly of clouds of dust that reflect the blue light of the young stars.

The NGC 2261, or Hubble’s Variable Nebula is a bipolar nebula about 3 light years across, illuminated by the variable star R Monocerotis. Its name comes from the fact that, like the central star, the nebula varies in brightness.