Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Monoceros (Mon)  ·  Contains:  15 S Mon  ·  B39  ·  Christmas Tree Cluster  ·  Hubble's variable neb  ·  LDN 1610  ·  LDN 1613  ·  NGC 2259  ·  NGC 2261  ·  NGC 2264  ·  PGC 136469  ·  PGC 136482  ·  PGC 136483  ·  PGC 136484  ·  PGC 136486  ·  PGC 136494  ·  PGC 136495  ·  PGC 136496  ·  PGC 136499  ·  PGC 136504  ·  PGC 136508  ·  PGC 136510  ·  PGC 136516  ·  PGC 136518  ·  PGC 2818863  ·  PK201+02.1  ·  Sh2-273  ·  The star 15 Mon
Cone Nebula/Christmas Tree Cluster NGC2264, matthew.maclean
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Cone Nebula/Christmas Tree Cluster NGC2264

Cone Nebula/Christmas Tree Cluster NGC2264, matthew.maclean
Powered byPixInsight

Cone Nebula/Christmas Tree Cluster NGC2264

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Description

The first week of February brought several nights of clear skies (and snow-free ground) for the first time in months, so I went after a couple winter targets that I have never had a chance for before. Even after five years of imaging, I am still working through many of the basic targets for the first time. For the cone nebula, I really just did minimal processing: Blur Xterminator, followed by Noise XTerminator, a rough stretch, and a little more stretching of the starless layer just to accentuate the colors a bit.

There is so much background hydrogen that there really isn't much empty space in this region, so I tried not to over-darken the image. Sometimes my backgrounds are so noisy that I have to, but this one seemed fairly nice.

I have also been playing with the Foraxx Pallette script; for bi-color images, it basically converts the red to orange, but I liked the look and I think it accentuates some of the nebula a bit. I also ended up staring at the starless hydrogen-alpha layer (red channel) quite a lot - there is so much structure to it that I decided to upload a version of that too.

Comments

Revisions

  • Final
    Cone Nebula/Christmas Tree Cluster NGC2264, matthew.maclean
    Original
  • Cone Nebula/Christmas Tree Cluster NGC2264, matthew.maclean
    B
  • Cone Nebula/Christmas Tree Cluster NGC2264, matthew.maclean
    C

B

Title: Foraxx version

Uploaded: ...

C

Title: Ha layer (starless)

Uploaded: ...

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Cone Nebula/Christmas Tree Cluster NGC2264, matthew.maclean