NGC 2237 - The Rosette Nebula in Monoceros
NGC 2237 - The Rosette Nebula in Monoceros
NGC 2237 - The Rosette Nebula in Monoceros
The Rosette Nebula is a beautiful molecular cloud of hydrogen gas that resembles a Rose. Within the nebula is the newly formed star cluster NGC 2244. The nebula itself is estimated to have a mass equivalent to 10,000 Suns.

In this image, North is Up. This image is a mosaic consisting of 4 frames and is 147% the size of a single full frame.

Exposure Details
Lens Celestron C-8 SCT with Celestron focal reducer
Focal Length 1260mm
Focal Ratio f/6.3
 
Mount Schaefer GEM - 7 1/2 Byers Gear
Guiding 80mm f/11 guidescope with PHD Guiding
 
Camera Canon 450D - Gary Honis modified
Exposure 228 subexposures of 180 seconds each at ISO 1600 - 11 1/3 hours total
Calibration 30 darks, 30 flats, 30 bias
 
Date January 16, 17, 27, and 28, 2012
Temperature 24F-1/16, 36F-1/17, 39F-1/27, 41F-1/28
SQM Reading
Seeing 2/5 on 1/16 and 1/28, 3/5 on 1/17, 1/5 on 1/27
Location Pine Mountain Club, California
 
Software Used Images Plus 4.5 for camera control, calibration, and stacking. Images Plus 5.0 for digital development, multiresolution sharpening, smoothing and noise reduction. Photoshop CS5 used for levels and curves, color correction, high pass filter, star shrinking, saturation adjustments, lab color, selective color, and screen mask invert. Gradient Xterminator for gradient removal. Carboni Tools for additional saturation adjustments, noise reduction, and smoothing. HLVG for additional color correction. Registar for aligning stacks.
Notes This is my first mosaic, and I was quite happy with the blending of the panels. When capturing the images, I wasn't particularly careful about aligning the camera in the same orientation from night to night, so I missed capturing the entire nebula. Nonetheless, I think the overall image came out fairly well.

The high resolution version displayed here is not the full frame. The full resolution version is available here.