What's in a name? The Little Rose. (jimwgram)

What's in a name? The Little Rose.

What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.

- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliette - Act II Scene II

Would it smell as sweet if we call it NGC 2237? Caldwell 49? The Skull Nebula?

I believe this stellar nursery 5000 light years away is just as awe-inspiring to look at no matter what we call it; but calling it Rosette (the "Little Rose") captures our imagination in a way that makes it all the sweeter. (To be fair, "Skull Nebula" also captures our imagination, but in not quite such a sweet way.)

Although it may look like a "little rose" in a telescope, the Rosette Nebula is actually a massive cloud of molecular gas that spans about 100 light years across. At its heart is an open star cluster designated as NGC 2244. Much like the Bubble Nebula, the Rosette was created (and is still being formed) by fierce stellar winds raging outward from this cluster of hot young stars, clearing a pocket in the gas and dust of the surrounding nebula. The same stars energize the surrounding HII nebulosity, lighting them up with brilliant pinks and reds which reminds us so much of a rose.

My latest image of the Rosette was captured exclusively with narrowband filters -- Ha, OIII, and SII -- so it doesn't look quite as rosy as the iconic image which must have captured the imagination of some poetically inclined astronomer who first looked at the unfolding petals of Hydrogen emission clouds and saw a little rose. Did the nebula's swirling gases and dust bring to mind the passionate and tumultuous love shared between Romeo and Juliet?

In total, I captured about 19 hours 48 minutes of data between December 18 and 25. I had more ambitious plans, but weather in California has been unfriendly to astrophotographers since just after Christmas. I processed it with BXT and EZ tools, with Forax mapping of the NB channels.

Final
Original
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Description: Uncropped version of this image.

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
PixInsight job	BQENTC9T5YTK846XM7Y6J88L5W4GS6OL
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	06h32m05s.26
RA (top/left)	06h36m13s.89
RA (top/right)	06h29m40s.73
RA (bottom/right)	06h27m55s.55
RA (bottom/left)	06h34m28s.96

Dec (center)	+04°56′39″.6
Dec (top/left)	+05°09′37″.2
Dec (top/right)	+05°49′04″.0
Dec (bottom/right)	+04°43′34″.4
Dec (bottom/left)	+04°04′24″.9

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