Putting up the (Ha) tree...

[TakMan]

Just a bit of fun really....

Was out on Friday having finished a near four hour run on the California Nebula. With the mist rolling in I set the camera off on some 600sec subs whilst I went and warmed up inside.

Not much to show here - the night was already deteriorating by the time it was into the third exposure.... hey-ho... or should that be... ho-ho !

Still beta testing though and sorting through the issues so grateful for any clear weather to put things through their paces

Takahashi FSQ106-ED + dedicated F/R @f/3.6

SBIG STF8300M + Baader 7nm Ha filter. Guided with SBIG ST-i via ST-80 via MicroProjects Equinox Image (beta test)

'Scopebuggied' Takahashi EM400 mount - controlled via MicroProjects Equinox Pro (all on a 17" MacBook Pro)

Preprocessed (Darks and Flat frames), aligned and stacked in Nebulosity 3.

Processed in Adobe Photoshop CS5 with 'Noel's Actions'

Full res here: http://astrob.in/full/25877/

The Cone Nebula is a H II region in the constellation of Monoceros, in the Orion Arm surrounding the NGC 2264 star cluster.

The 'cone' (a 7-light-year-long gaseous pillar silhouetted against glowing red gas), is a triangular dark nebula near the bottom of the nebula (shown at the top here).

The bright star at the centre is 15 Monocerotis (or 'S Monocerotis'), that marks the base of the 'tree' - it is a quadruple star system consisting of four brilliant blue-white stars

(classes O7, B7, B8 and A6) and it is partly responsible for causing the nebula to glow.

This loosely associated group of newly formed stars are slowly dispersing into the galactic plane.

NGC 2264 is just tiny blister of visible light on a much larger star-forming region that lies about 2500 light years away.

At magnitude 4.5, the Christmas Tree Cluster (NGC 2264) is easy enough to see with your unaided eye in dark sky.

The Fox Fur Nebula (centre left), has a strange shape originating from fine interstellar dust reacting in complex ways with the energetic light and hot gas being expelled by the young stars.

Thanks for looking....

Damian

[Gina]

Does look a bit like a Christmas tree

[LukeSkywatcher]

No lights on the tree this year?

Lovely image.

[TakMan]

Well it is a time of austerity don't you know...!

And the electric hook-up would fall foul of 'Elf and Safety!!!!'

[MartinB]

Looks great Damian. I used my image of this on some Christmas cards a couple of years ago.

[Mick.G.]

Elf & safety!!!

That is how Rrudoph got his red nose.

Without Elf & safety......

Mick.G.

[TakMan]

Looks great Damian. I used my image of this on some Christmas cards a couple of years ago.

I have future grand plans that go something like that Martin!

I may decide to re-frame though first.... It will be interesting to see how the data fares under better skies.... Although I am hoping that the earlier shots of the California Nebula have more umph to them. Perhaps I was asking too much of the data here under the conditions shot - mist and the moon....?

Too be honest, I should be grateful for what I have - half hour after I had put everything into the garage to take the Dark Frames, it had gone so misty that you could not even see any stars!

Loving the mono camera though.....!

Thanks again for the comments,

Damian