Instrument

Takahashi FSQ-106ED @ f/5.0 (530 mm F.L.)  Captured at 3.5 arcsec/pixel.  Shown resampled to 16.8 arcsec/pixel.

Mount

Paramount ME

Camera

SBIG STL-11000 w/ internal filter wheel, AstroDon Filters

Acquisition Data

1/1/2009 to 1/10/2009 Chino Valley... with CCDAutoPilot3

Exposure

Ha  300 min. (10 x 30 min. bin 1x1,  6 nm flter)

Click here for a natural color version
Click here for a narrow band color mapped version

Software

CCDSoft, CCDStack, Photoshop CS w/ the Fits Liberator plugin and Noel Carboni's actions.

CCDStack to calibrate, register, normalize, data reject & combine sub exposures.

PhotoShop for non-linear stretching.

Comment

North is to the top.

This image, captured with a hydrogen-alpha filter, shows the extent of the hydrogen gas. In true color it glows with the red light characteristic of hydrogen atoms recombining with long lost electrons, stripped away (ionized) by energetic starlight.

The Rosette Nebula is a large, circular hydrogen region located near one end of a giant molecular cloud in the Monoceros region of the Milky Way Galaxy. The open cluster, NGC 2244, is closely associated with the nebulosity, the stars having been formed from the nebula's matter. The Nebula is about 100 light-years across and is about 5000 light-years away.