Our Astronomical Christmas Tree

The Christmas Tree Cluster NGC 2264captured from Utah Desert Remote Observatories in natural color RGB with additional hydrogen-alpha data.

What better nebula for the holiday season than the Christmas Tree Cluster in the Monoceros constellation. It gets its name from the shape of the central stars forming the classical triangle shape of a Christmas tree with the bright blue star at the bottom and the blue star just below the Cone Nebula at the top.

The PlaneWave CDK12.5 telescope located at Utah Desert Remote Observatories provides closeup details.

This image was captured primarily in RGB using red, green and blue filters on a monochrome ASI6200MM Pro camera attached to a PlaneWave CDK12.5 optical tube assembly. I also captured some data specifically in the hydrogen-alpha wavelength to add detail to hydrogen gas cloud in the background. Since ionized hydrogen gas glows with a distinctive red color at adds detail but is still a natural color image. The CDK12.5 has a 2541mm focal length so this is a pretty tight view of the region.