This beautiful area of the sky has no bright stars. Without optical aid, it looks empty from the burbs were I live. But with the light pollution extracted, and with a sensitive camera and a large lens to gather and focus the light, great things can be seen.On the left of this image is the Cone Nebula, a dark cloud that is slowly disintegrating in the radiation generated by the bright stars to the right of it. The cluster of stars, known as NGC 2264, and the cloud of hydrogen gas shown here, can be found about 2,600 light years away. These objects, like the California Nebula, lie in the same arm of the galaxy that we inhabit.
This image is 18x8' with the Atik 16 through the Orion 120mm f/5 achromat and WO 0.8x II ff/fr (so the image was taken at f/4) and an Astronomk 12nm Ha filter.
This image was published in the April 2011 issue of Ciel Extrême, page 15. Thanks to the editor, Marc Cesarini. It's a great privilege.
6 comments:
This is a stunning image. I love the business of the region - so much going on here. You continue to set a gold standard of astro-imaging, mate.
Thanks, Phil! Kind of you to say. It's my third try at this shot since 2008. I'm getting closer.
Another beautiful image, Val! The details really pop out--the Cone Nebula looks almost 3-D! NGC 2264 is also called the Christmas Tree Cluster. You have to turn your head sideways in this image to see the outline of a tree (the brightest star is the trunk). The Fox Fur Nebula is also visible here, in the lower right.
Thanks for the kind comments and for the additional detail, Rory. That's why Phil said this place is so busy. We should add that the brightest star is called S Monocerotis. It's a double star and helps fuel the ultraviolet wind that excites the hydrogen atoms that glow in the image. Also, North is to the right in this image, so if one is facing south and looks up, the Cone is at the bottom. This image is helping me think through what the area is like in three dimensions. For instance, I am betting one end of the image is closer to us than the other end. Which one is closer?
I'm thinking that the Cone side is closer, since part of it is in shadow.
That's my guess, too. It also seems to me that the bright star just to the right of the Cone, HD 47887, is the focal point of the Cone Nebula. I had always supposed it was S Monocerotis, but the lines in the nebula seem to point away from HD 47887 more than from S. If S were the focal point, the Cone would be narrower. S seems to have carved out an area of its own on the right side of the image. There is a diagonal line just above and running down to the right of HD 47887. Perhaps that's the line between the influence of that star and S.
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