NGC 2237-9, The Rosette Nebula, And Open CLuster
NGC 2244, in Monoceros
The beautiful Rosette Nebula is justifiably one of the most famous nebulas in the sky and one of the largest (approximately 80x60 arcminutes). It is estimated to be almost 5000 light years distant, with a diameter of 90 light years. It is optimally situated for imaging in the northern winter. The central hole has been created by the young hot stars in the central cluster NGC 2244. The strong red color is given by the hydrogen alpha light emitted at 656.3 nm.
This image is my first attempt at mosaic combination of deep sky images and could have benefited from wider coverage and far more exposure time. One set of RGB frames covered the upper two-thirds of the final image and the second set covered the lower two-thirds, so the overlap was much greater than necessary.
| Date | 2003-02-08 |
| Scope |
Astro-Physics 130 EDFs refractor at f/4.5 with ST-10XME CCD camera at -15 °C on the A-P 1200 GTO mount. Guided with the internal guide chip. SBIG CFW-8 filter wheel. |
| Exposure |
Each part of the mosaic consists of 3 five minute R, G, and B exposures for a total of only 30 minutes. |
| Processing |
Raw frames were calibrated, debloomed with Wodaski's Debloomer plug-in, hot-pixel removed, and cropped in MaxIm 3.09. Master color frames were then registered in RegiStar to combine the two parts of the mosaic. The combined master color frames were then brought back into MaxIm and color combined to create the RGB. The RGB image was then adjusted in Photoshop using Levels, Curves, and unsharp mask. Finally, the image was smoothed in Pleiades Software SGBNR. |