Nebula of the cone NGC 2264 in the Unicorn - Nebulae in Monoceros - The...

Nebula of the cone NGC 2264 in the Unicorn - Nebulae in Monoceros - The nebula of the Cone below, is a region about 2600 years - light from the Earth. The bright star in the high center is S Monocerotis, a star of magnitude 4.7. Nests in these gas clouds, the Christmas tree, a cluster of young stars whose shape evokes a Christmas tree. This wide - field image of the Christmas Tree Cluster was taken at the National Science Foundation's 0.9 - meter telescope on Kitt Peak with the NOAO Mosaic CCD camera. Also known as NGC2264, it is an open cluster of stars embedded in a diffuse nebula. It is located in the constellation of Monoceros, the Unicorn. The image also contains two famous nebula. At the bottom center of the image is the Cone Nebula, and to the upper left is the Fox Fur Nebula. The bright star just above the center of the image is known as S Mon. The gentle arcs in orange and blue near the center of the image are Herbig Haro objects, jets of gas from protostars embedded in the nebula. This image was created by combining emission - line images in Hydrogen - alpha (red - orange), Oxygen [O III] (light blue) and Sulfur [S II] (blue - violet)