NGC 2264 Christmas Tree
The Christmas Tree Cluster is an open cluster of stars embedded in a diffuse nebula. The image also contains two famous nebula. At the bottom center of the image is the Cone Nebula, and to the upper left is the Fox Fur Nebula. The bright star just above the center of the image is known as S Monoceros. The gentle arcs in orange and blue near the center of the image are Herbig Haro objects, jets of gas from protostars embedded in the nebula. When viewed upside-down, the entire cluster looks like a Christmas tree.
| Observatory: | WIYN Observatory Kitt Peak, Arizona |
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| Telescope: | WIYN 0.9-Meter |
| Instrument: | Mosaic I |
| Astronomer: | T.A. Rector and B.A. Wolpa (NOAO/AURA/NSF) |
| Date of Observation: | 03-01-1999 |
| Filters and Assigned Colors: | Oxygen [OIII] (light blue), Hydrogen-Alpha (red-orange) and Sulphur [SII] (blue-violet) |
| Exposure Times: | 5x5 minutes in each filter |
| Location of Image: | Monoceros |
| Field of View: | 55.5 x 57 arcminutes |
| Orientation: | North is up, East is to the left |
| Link to Larger Image | |
| Link to Full Resolution Image | |
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