Merry Christmas
Published on Dec 24, 2008 at 11:51 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under Uncategorized, star clusters.
Merry Christmas everyone!
The image at the top of this post is a European Southern Observatory image of NGC 2264. The image hit the web a week or so ago, but I thought that I’d hold off posting it until now. NGC 2264 is located in Monoceros, rising in the evenings this time of year. The designation NGC 2264 is often applied to several objects in this vicinity. It includes the cone shaped dark feature at the top of the image called the Cone Nebula. It also includes the bright nebula near the bottom of the image, called the Fox Fur Nebula. And, NGC 2264 also refers to the star cluster in the middle of the image. The cluster, itself, was found by William Herschel in 1784, with the nebula being found almost two years later. The cluster is about 2600 light years distant. In the middle of the 20th Century, Sky and Telescope’s columnist Leland Copeland described the cluster’s brightest stars as resembling the shape of a Christmas tree. So, it’s been called the Christmas Tree cluster ever since. It is actually visible in binoculars if you’ve got clear skies and know where to look.
Naturally, when this image was released, I thought that it would make for a nice Christmas posting. I turned it upside down from the way that it has been mostly distributed in order to show off the Christmas tree asterism better.
Merry Christmas!
-Astroprof
Image Credit: ESO
Seeking Solace on December 25, 2008 at 10:00 am: 1
Happy Christmas!