Christmas Tree Cluster & Cone and Foxfur Nebulae (NGC 2264/Sh2-273) (estabrook)

Christmas Tree Cluster & Cone and Foxfur Nebulae (NGC 2264/Sh2-273)

Revision title: Christmas 2023 Reprocess!

Christmas Tree Cluster & Cone and Foxfur Nebulae (NGC 2264/Sh2-273). In December, my suburban neighborhood is drenched with Christmas lights. It's a little ironic, then, that I'm using a telescope and a dual-narrowband filter to peer beyond these lights at the Christmas Tree Cluster (NGC 2264) 2,300 light-years away.

There's no better target on a cold winter's night. When I bought my telescope two years ago, I went out on a crisp Christmas night to enjoy these gems for the first time, and now I'm enjoying them photographically so that I can also see the lush crimson of the Cone and Foxfur Nebula as well (Sh2-273).

This project went exceptionally quickly and smoothly, and I was pleased enough to publish this image after just one night--seven hours--of imaging.

I was delighted to see that my field of view included the Hubble Variable Nebula (NGC 2261/Caldwell 46), and even more delighted to see that it could be distinguished from the horribly distorted comatic stars in the corners of my images (the result of imperfect Hyperstar collimation)!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

(Captured: C6, AM5, Hyperstar, ASI183MC Pro, IDAS NBZ UHS filter, Optolong L-Pro filter. Processed: AstroPixelProcessor, PixInsight, BlurXterminator, StarXterminator, NoiseXterminator)

Original
B
C
Final
D

C

Description: Added a pinch of saturation, especially to the stars, and a bit of BlurX, which helps to tame my unruly Hyperstar stars.

Uploaded: ...

D

Title: Christmas 2023 Reprocess!

Description: I made use of the new GraXpert, the latest BlurXterminator, and a few tricks I've picked up over the past year to reprocess this image and draw out as much festive Ha as I possibly could. Perhaps I've overdone it, but this time of year, nothing succeeds like excess.

Uploaded: ...

ZWO ASI183/QHY183
Light Polluted skies
Optolong L-Pro filter
HyperStar Lens Astrophotography
NOVAC
The OSC Club (One Shot Camera)
Virginia Astronomers and Astrophotographers

	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

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	8956931
PixInsight job	LWAL3TOF3YEXX9C44IS50WIYX6DZFEAJ
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	06h40m30s.95
RA (top/left)	06h44m51s.40
RA (top/right)	06h41m25s.80
RA (bottom/right)	06h36m10s.82
RA (bottom/left)	06h39m35s.76

Dec (center)	+09°50′47″.1
Dec (top/left)	+10°04′10″.1
Dec (top/right)	+08°46′40″.3
Dec (bottom/right)	+09°37′12″.10
Dec (bottom/left)	+10°54′50″.9

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