This image captures a series of objects located in the constellation of Monoceros at a declination of +10 degrees. The primary objects in the image, from bottom to top, are the Cone Nebula, the Christmas Tree open star cluster (NGC 2264), the bright multiple star system S Monocerotis, the Fox Fur Nebula, and Barnard 39.
All of these features are part of the Sh2-273 nebula, a broad emission nebula which is about 4 degrees wide. It extends slightly beyond the borders of this image.
The most spectacular object in the image is the Cone Nebula, at the bottom center of the image. Similar to the Pillars of Creation, the Cone Nebula is a 7-light-year-long gaseous star formation pillar silhouetted against glowing red gas.
The Christmas Tree Cluster (NGC 2264) is an open star cluster of 600 blue young stars ionizing the reddish hydrogen nebula. The NGC 2264 designation includes both the star cluster and the nebula. In the image, the "tree" points down.
Many of the V-shaped arcs seen in the image are Herbig-Haro objects - jets of gas emitted from forming stars and shrouded in dust. I have identified many of these HH objects in the mouseover of
my previous image post of this object.
Two other interesting features of this image which are not often discussed are:
1. GAL 201.6+01.6, the bright red HII nebula at the top right of the image.
2. The unidentified faint dark nebula which looks like a kangaroo, located halfway between the Cone Nebula and the right edge of the image.
This image is a narrowband image with RGB stars. The narrowband palette is an odd combination of HII, OIII and SII, focusing mostly on HII and SII. This result showed a bit more detail than standard SHO or HII-RGB combinations.
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