The famous "Rosette Nebula" in Monoceros. Visible only as a faint, ghostly gray circle through even the largest telescopes, it reveals its brilliant colors with exposures of a few minutes or longer. It is located about halfway along a line from Procyon to the belt of Orion. Note the glittering open star cluster NGC2244 in the center of the nebula.
The nebulosity consists of an enormous cloud of hydrogen gas that is being excited by the young hot blue-white stars in the interior cluster.
The Rosette Nebula (NGC2237) in Monceros
Date Taken:January 9, 2005
Location Taken: Conditions of Location:FWHM 2.11
Equipment Used:Takahashi TOA-130 5" apochromatic refractor telescope, SBIG ST-10XME CCD camera, Optec TCF-S focuser, Astrodon RGB filters.
Processing Used:5x10 minutes H-alpha, and 3x5 minutes RGB, processed in Maxim DL and Photoshop
Distance from Location:5,500 light years
Constellation:Monceros (the "unicorn")
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