The few nights I’ve had for astro I’ve been concentrating on two nebulas that are actually connected but too big for me to fit in the frame using the C8. Once I collect more light on the Fox Fur Nebula, I’m going to try to create a panorama with the two images. It has been frustratingly cloudy, windy, or very poor atmospheric seeing. Birding hasn’t been much better. As always, images can be opened in a new window or tab to see a larger image.
This is the Fox Fur Nebula, also known as the Christmas Tree Cluster, NGC 2264, Cone Nebula, and other designations. The parts make up the whole. It is located in the constellation Monoceros. I have about two hours of exposure so far. The Cone Nebula. I have about 7 hours on it now. I don’t know what these are going to look like if I can combine them. There are two bright stars in the upper left, one yellow and one blue. The same stars can be seen in the Fox Fur Nebula image above, on the upper right. I mostly did this just to see if I could. The Dusty Hand Galaxy is a very small and faint, only about 3 arc minutes in diameter. But I did manage to capture enough detail to see “the hand”. Designated NGC 2146, it is located in the constellation Camelopardalis close to Polaris, distance around 70 million light years. Anna’s Hummingbird. One of two Long-eared Owls I’ve been seeing in The Thicket. They are very well concealed.
2 replies on “Fox Fur and Cone Nebula”
That dusty hand galaxy is pretty spooky looking. Good pics.
2 replies on “Fox Fur and Cone Nebula”
That dusty hand galaxy is pretty spooky looking. Good pics.
We really enjoyed the kit fox pictures. Mom & Dad