The Christmas Tree Cluster. This image was captured using the Wide Field Imager camera attached to the 2.2-metre Max-Planck Society/ESO telescope at La Silla Observatory, 2,400m high in the Chilean Atacama Desert. Credit: ESO
This is NGC 2264, an object that consists of both the Cone Nebula and accompanying Christmas Tree Cluster.
The source of the latter nickname is obvious: it would be difficult to find a more festive-looking deep-sky object, with its glowing red Christmas tree-shaped nebulaic cloud and a star cluster of cosmic baubles.
Deep within the clouds of gas and dust are the ingredients for producing new stars, which burn a fiercely hot bright blue.
The red hue in the image is a result of gas clouds glowing as they are hit by ultra-violet light emanating from the newborn stars.
The region is about 30 lightyears across, and is located in the Monoceros constellation about 2,600 lightyears from Earth, not far in the sky from the Orion constellation.
Astronomer William Herschel discovered the cluster itself in January 1784, and then went on to locate a section of the glowing cloud about two years later at Christmas time.
The bright star at the top of the 'tree' is a massive multiple star system that emerged from within the gas and dust a few million years ago, while the dark patch at the bottom of the image is the Cone Nebula itself.
This image was captured using the Wide Field Imager camera attached to the 2.2-metre Max-Planck Society/ESO telescope at La Silla Observatory, 2,400m high in the Chilean Atacama Desert.
It took 10 hours to capture all the date required to produce the full picture of the Christmas Tree Cluster.
The Christmas Tree Cluster. This image was captured using the Wide Field Imager camera attached to the 2.2-metre Max-Planck Society/ESO telescope at La Silla Observatory, 2,400m high in the Chilean Atacama Desert. Credit: ESO
The Cone Nebula (NGC 2264)
Jason Green (Gibraltar)
Frenegal de la Sierra, Badajoz, Spain, 10 January 2017
Equipment: QSI 660wsg-8 mono CCD camera, William Optics FLT 132 triplet apo refractor, Celestron CGE Pro mount.
NGC 2264
Ian J Crichton, Dalgety Bay, 9 February 2018
Equipment: Canon EOS 70D DSLR camera, TS-Optics Imaging Star 130mm apo refractor, Sky-Watcher NEQ6 Pro SynScan mount.
NGC 2264, Chris Heapy, Macclesfield, 29 December 2016
Chris says: “I had imaged this area back in 2014 using a smaller camera, but using the same 5-inch refractor with my new G4-16000 enabled me to capture the surrounding structures at similar resolution, revealing NGC 2259 in the bottom-left corner.”
Equipment: Moravian G4-16000 CCD camera, Televue NP127is apo refractor, 10 Micron GM 2000 HPS II mount.
NGC 2264 by Ian J Crichton, Dalgety Bay, Scotland. Equipment: NEQ6 PRO, TASPO 130Q @f/5, Canon 70D modified, Astronomik UHC, 6nm H-alpha clip in filters,SX Lodestar x2 mono CCD
NGC 2264 (Cone Nebula) and Surroundings by Jeffrey O. Johnson, Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA. Equipment: TOA-130F, EM200, QSI690wsg.
NGC 2264 by Mario Richter, Finsterwalde, Südbrandenburg, Germany. Equipment: Takahashi TSA 102/816, Reducer Tak FS TAO 612mm, Sky Watcher EQ6 Sky Scan, AMP Image Master 60/240, MGEN 2, Canon 60d mod, IDAS LPS D1 filter.
Cone Nebula And Christmas Tree by Gerard Tartalo Montardit, Lleida, Spain. Equipment: Canon EOS 600D modified, coma corrector baader mpcc, newton skywatcher 150/750 pds, skywatcher neq6 pro2, guiding with phd2, zwo asi 290mc and newton celestron 130/650.
Cone Nebula by Fernando Oliveira De Menezes, Chapada Guimaraes, Mt, Brazil. Equipment: APO 80mm TS 6 elements, ASI 1600mm cooled, H-Alpha and L.
NGC 2264 (Cone Nebula) by Jeff Johnson, Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA. Equipment: Takahashi FS-60C, Takahashi EM200 Temma II, QSI 540wsg, SX Lodestar, Astrodon Ha (3nm), Astrodon Tru-Balance I-Series LRGB Gen 2.
NGC2264 - Cone Nebula and Christmas Tree Cluster in SHO Narrowband by Simon Todd, Haywards Heath, UK. Equipment: Sky-Watcher Quattro 8-CF Imaging Newtonian, Skywatcher Aplanatic Coma Corrector, Atik 383L Mono CCD, Celestron Telescopes C80ED Refractor, Qhyccd QHY5L-II Mono, Sky-Watcher EQ8 Pro, Starlight Xpress Ltd 7x36mm EFW, Baader Planetarium 7nm HA, OIII and SII 36mm Unmounted.
Cone Nebula and Hubble Variable by Paul Gordon, Rochford, Essex, UK. Equipment: Borg 77ED II Refractor, Modded Canon EOS 1000D DSLR, CLS light pollution filter, Skyscan HEQ5 pro mount.
Christmas Tree Cluster and surrounding Nebulae in HST by Chris Heapy, Macclesfield, UK. Equipment: Televue NP127is, Moravian G4-1600, 10-Micron GM2000HPS-II, unguided, Chroma 3nM Ha, OIII and SII
NGC2264, Christmas Tree Cluster and Cone Nebula by Chris Heapy, Macclesfield, UK. Equipment: TeleVue NP127is Refractor, 0.8x focal reducer, Atik490EX, Losmandy G11, TV Pronto, SX Lodestar.
Cone Nebula colour widefield view in Ha by Dave Trewren, Bristol, UK. Equipment: QHY9M, Nikkor 180mm f/2.8 ED, HEQ5, StarShoot, modified finder scope, Baader Ha narrowband.
Cone Nebula Widefield View in Ha by Dave Trewren, Bristol, UK. Equipment: QHY9M, Nikkor 180mm f/2.8 ED, HEQ5, StarShoot, modified finder scope, Baader Ha narrowband.
Iain Todd is BBC Sky at Night Magazine's Content Editor. He fell in love with the night sky when he caught his first glimpse of Orion, aged 10.
The Christmas Tree Cluster. This image was captured using the Wide Field Imager camera attached to the 2.2-metre Max-Planck Society/ESO telescope at La Silla Observatory, 2,400m high in the Chilean Atacama Desert. Credit: ESO
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