chromosphere » nebulae

M42, M43, NGC 1977 – The Orion Nebula and Running Man

Graeme Coates — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 13:23:51 +0000

RA: 05h 35m 17s, Dec: -5°23’28″
The Orion Nebula (M42 (NGC 1976) & M43) is located in the “sword” of Orion and is a large emission nebula that is easily visible to the naked eye. It is an area of star formation – the closest such to Earth at a distance of 1500 light years. The nebula is an estimated 30 light years across, and contains a young star cluster (the Trapezium) in the bright core of the nebula. The reflection nebula at the top of the image is the “Running Man” nebula (NGC 1973, 1975 and 1977) – so named due to the resemblance of the silhouetted dust lanes.

I had lots of trouble with this image (taken on 6th Feb, 2007) – the flats I took didn’t work out (there’s the odd artifact here and there!), and I’m not quite happy with the colour balance – have another go at this later I think…

NGC2264 – The Cone Nebula and Christmas Tree Cluster

Graeme Coates — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 13:20:48 +0000

RA: 06h 41m, Dec: +9°53′
The Cone Nebula and Christmas Tree Cluster are part of a larger star forming complex within the constellation of Monoceros. A 2.5 hour exposure in H-Alpha light taken 22nd December 2006 using an Astrodon filter shows only glowing hydrogen gas and stars – the blue reflection nebula near to the “Fox Fur” nebula (below the bright variable star S Monocerotis) often seen in photos of this region is largely invisible as most light is of the wrong wavelength and is rejected by the filter.

NGC2244 – The Rosette Nebula

Graeme Coates — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 13:17:04 +0000

RA: 06h 33m 45s, Dec: +4°59’54″
The Rosette Nebula is a large H II region located in the constellation of Monoceros, just to the left of Orion. The nebula is a large star forming region with a cluster at the centre that , through the action of the stellar winds, has blown a large cavity out of the nebula from which it formed. The nebula itself is often referred to simply as NGC 2237 (though NGC 2238, NGC 2239 and NGC 2246 are all parts of the same nebula). The cluster is designated NGC 2244.

At 100% scale, the detail in the Rosette Nebula (showing the dark regions obscuring the bright emission nebula in the background) shows the effects of the stellar winds from the hot stars of cluster NGC 2244 (top right). This is a crop from the full size image above.