The Christmas Tree Cluster (NGC 2264) resembles a Christmas tree, with the Cone Nebula as the ornament at the top. It was captured from Qixingtan in Hualien, Taiwan, a Bortle 3 zone. The telescope was my Celestron EdgeHD 8" and HyperStar v4 configuration. I tracked the object with my Celestron AVX mount and imaged it with my ASI533MC Pro camera. The acquisition time consisted of 45 light frames, each at 180 seconds.
#astrophotography #astronomy #naturephotography #nature #longexposurephotography #longexposure #photography #christmastreecluster #conenebula #NGC2264

Some additional observations made while waiting for the moon to make its triumphant appearance. #unistellar #odysseypro #space #astronomy #amateur #owlcluster #ngc0185 #ChristmasTreeCluster #cluster #galaxy

The Christmas Tree Cluster
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My last capture of the year 2024 is the Christmas Tree Cluster and Cone Nebula in the constellation Monoceros. This region is a fantastic sight in the night sky, with the Cone Nebula and the Christmas Tree Cluster forming the iconic structure in the center. While not officially part of this designation, the Fox Fur Nebula and the Snowflage also are prominent parts of this region.

The Cone Nebula is an H-II region. It's shape is created by a dark absorption nebula and dust in front of the faint emission nebula.

Left from the central structure, there's a small bright nebula, easy to miss. This is Hubble's Variable Nebula, named after Edwin Hubble, who studied it in the early 20th century - the first recorded observation however was done by William Herschel in 1783. The nebula is illuminated by the star R Monocerotis, which is a young variable star, and changes it's appearance visibly over just weeks.

Finally, below the central structure and right from those dark nebulae, there's NGC 2259, an open star cluster.

Scope: Askar 103APO
Lens: Askar 0.6x Reducer
Camera: Canon EOS 6Da
Filter: Antlia TriBand RGB Ultra
Mount: Skywatcher AZ-EQ5 GT
Guiding: Svbony SV165 Guide Scope with ZWO ASI 224MC
Controller: ZWO ASIAir Pro

Integration time: 6hrs 50min

Full version and print available at: https://adfr.io/astro/20241228_ngc2264

#astrophotography #astrophoto #astrophotographer #deepsky #deepskyphotography #deepskyobject #deepskyastrophotography #christmastreecluster #conenebula #foxfur #hubblesvariablenebula #ngc2264 #ngc2259 #snowflakecluster

To wish you all a happy Christmas here's my photo of the #ChristmasTreeCluster + #ConeNebula. Thanks for all of the likes/comments/RTs, for listening to the #StarDiary podcast & for the amazing support since the release of the Collin's Stargazer's Bible. I'll be taking some time out over the festive period, but I'll be back in 2025. Mary x

NGC 2264: Telescopes illuminate 'Christmas tree cluster'
https://phys.org/news/2023-12-ngc-telescopes-illuminate-christmas-tree.html #ChristmasTreeCluster #cosmictree #nebula #Chandra