Larry Ammann took this stellar shot of the Cone Nebula in Monoceros with his SVX140T. This nebula is an HII region that rests approximately 2,500 light-years away from Earth. It is neighbors with the popular Christmas Tree nebula, which it sits south of. Both of these objects make up the larger region of NGC 2264. The Cone Nebula’s shape stems from a dark absorption nebula made up of cold molecular hydrogen and dust in front of a faint emission nebula, containing hydrogen ionized by S Monocerotis, the brightest star in NGC 2264. The nebula itself is roughly 7 light-years long and has an apparent magnitude of 3.9. It gets its name due to its conical shape in ground-based images.
According to Larry: This is “the Cone and Fox Fur nebula taken with my SVX140T. This is an SHO image using the full-frame ASI6200MM camera under Bottle 3 skies at my observatory in southern OK. The SVX140T was a retirement present to myself and it has exceeded expectations, especially with nebulae like this target whose rich colors, textures, and details are revealed below. Listed as NGC 2264, this nebula is about 2500 light-years away in the constellation Monoceros and is actively forming new stars as part of the Christmas Tree Cluster. These young stars are energizing the surrounding gas which then glows in the light of ionized hydrogen, oxygen, and sulphur.”
Details:
Scope: SVX140T + SFFX1 Flattener (938mm, f/6.7)
Camera: ASI6200MM
Mount: Paramount MyT upgraded
Focuser/rotator: Nitecrawler
Mount & camera control: TheSkyX, Linux Mint
Filters: Chroma 5nm Ha, OIII, SII
Subs: 50x240 secs Ha, 47x240 secs OIII, 56x360 secs SII
Processing: PixInsight, Affinity Photo 2
Location: Bortle 3
Other Designations: NGC 2264 (portion)
References:
Admin. (2023, February 16). Cone Nebula (NGC 2264) – Constellation Guide. https://www.constellation-guide.com/cone-nebula/…
Wikipedia contributors. (2025, January 15). Cone nebula. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cone_Nebula
Wikipedia contributors. (2024, December 6). NGC 2264. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_2264
Cone Nebula - NASA. (n.d.). NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/cone-nebula/