Christmas Tree Cluster and Cone Nebula (NGC 2264) in HaRGB - Season's Greetings (Orestis Pavlou)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Monoceros (Mon) · Contains: Christmas Tree cluster · Cone nebula · NGC 2264 · The star 15Mon

Christmas Tree Cluster and Cone Nebula (NGC 2264) in HaRGB - Season's Greetings, Orestis Pavlou

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Christmas Tree Cluster and Cone Nebula (NGC 2264) in HaRGB - Season's Greetings

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Christmas Tree Cluster and Cone Nebula (NGC 2264) in HaRGB - Season's Greetings

Season's Greetings and happy holidays to everyone!

Christmas Tree Cluster and Cone Nebula (NGC 2264)

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The 'Christmas Tree Cluster' (center) is a cluster of young stars located approximately 2600 light years away. The brightest star in the image is the variable star 'S Monocerotis' (or '15 Monocerotis').

This bright star cluster is visible with the naked eye from a dark location.

It is surrounded by vast amounts of dust and gas, which collapse under gravity to form new stars.

The surrounding gas either absorbs radiation from these young stars and re-emits it (red) or scatters/reflects the light from these young stars (blue), whereas the surrounding dust blocks this light from reaching us.

This results in the colourful nebula seen in this image.

Also visible here is the 'Cone Nebula' (under the central cluster), which spans around 7 light years in length.

I was 'lucky' enough to get a couple of clear nights mid-December, so I could image this in time for the holidays.

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Total imaging time: 6 hours RGB (123x180") + 2.5 hours H-alpha (31x300")

Telescope: Sky-Watcher Evostar ED80 Black Diamond

Camera: ZWO ASI294MC Pro

Mount: Celestron AVX

Suburban Astrophotography
Imaged with APT
ZWO ASI 294MC PRO
Beginners AP

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Astrometry.net job	3256668
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Christmas Tree Cluster and Cone Nebula (NGC 2264) in HaRGB - Season's Greetings

Christmas Tree Cluster and Cone Nebula (NGC 2264) in HaRGB - Season's Greetings

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Christmas Tree Cluster and Cone Nebula (NGC 2264) in HaRGB - Season's Greetings

Christmas Tree Cluster and Cone Nebula (NGC 2264) in HaRGB - Season's Greetings

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