The Rosette Nebula (NGC 2237-2239, Caldwell 49) is a vast emission nebula located in the constellation Monoceros, about 5,200 light-years away from Earth. It is a stellar nursery with active star formation and is associated with the open star cluster NGC 2244, which lies at its center.
The area surrounding the Rosette Nebula, including the Fox Fur Nebula, Cone Nebula, and Christmas Tree Cluster, is a rich and complex region of interstellar gas and dust. This entire region is a part of the Monoceros Molecular Cloud and is filled with emission, reflection, and dark nebulae, making it a spectacular deep-sky target. When I first started out in astrophotography, the Rosette nebula was one of those targets that I always wanted to image. When I set this image up I was not aware that there was such an expansive area of nebulosity and nor was I expecting to pull out as much detail in just 2 hours of data.
The image of this beautiful region was taken with the Samyang Widefield set up. Image acquisition was controlled in N.I.N.A and scheduled to start right at the beginning of astronomical dark. I was hoping to make the most out of a clear forecast but only managed to gather a total of 2 hours and 45 minutes on this target as the clouds rolled in earlier than forecast.
Equipment
| Telescope | Samyang 135mm F2.0 ED UMC |
|---|---|
| Camera | ZWO ASI071MC COOL |
| Mount | Sky-Watcher HEQ5 PRO |
| Filter | Optolong L-eNhance 2″ |
| Accessories | Astrodymium Ring System with ZWO EAF & ASIAIR Mount for Samyang / Rokinon 135mm F2 LensPegasus Astro Pocket PowerboxZWO EAF |
| Software | Adobe LightroomLuc Coiffier DeepSkyStacker (DSS)Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsightStefan Berg Nighttime Imaging ‘N’ Astronomy (N.I.N.A. / NINA) |
A reprocess of the Data.
After further deliberation over the data and as I get to grips with PixInsight, I had another go at processing the image. This time I tried splitting out the channels to combine them into a HOO version, I followed some of the editing suggestions by Adam Block and I will probably put together an outline of my processing steps in another blog post.
