Wednesday, December 30, 2009

The Rosette Nebula in Monoceros in Ha


The Rosette Nebula with NGC 2244 star cluster in its middle is beautiful. The mass of the nebula is estimated to be around 10,000 solar masses.
The cluster and nebula lie at a distance of some 5,200 LY from Earth and measure roughly 130 LY in diameter. It is my first Ha picture.
Conditions: minus 20 C and moonlight.
Celestron ED80 - 600 mm at f7.5 piggyback on CPC 1100, Canon 40D modified, Astronomic 12nm Ha filter.
16 x 10 min at ISO 1600. Darks and flats, guided with Stellarvue 200mm f4, NexImage video camera and MaxImDL.
I will revisit the nebula on a later occation to get more data with and without filters.