An interesting area of the sky found in the constellation Monoceros. The Christmas Tree star cluster is promenent in the Photo, topped by the Cone Nebula. The Cone is a "dark nebula". There is a blue reflection nebula and lots of red colored nebula in the area. The giant hot star near the blue reflection nebula, S Monoceros, provides the light for us to see these nebula.

This is a cropped and rotated version of the other Christmas Tree Photo. This one shows off the main object cluster. I've also sharpened some of the detail in the blue nebula and surrounding area.

These objects are approximatly 2400 light years away from earth.

First night out with my new William Optics FLT 110mm f7 telescope, I have the new "Lite" version with a 2.5" focuser. This is one of three photos I took that night.

Photo Details:
Date: Feb. 1, 2009
Exposure: 16 x 6 minutes @ ISO 1600
Camera: Canon XT modified by Hap Griffin
Telescope: W/O FLT 110 Lite
Mount: Celestron CGE, guided with PHD
Processed with: Deep Sky Stacker, PixInsight LE, PhotoShop CS3