The Rosette Nebula

Location

Taken From DGRO in Edgerton Wisconsin

Telescope & Mount

TMB 130 @f6 on Paramount ME

Camera

SBIG STL-11000 with Astrodon Filters

Image Data

HA  300m - 30m subs, 1x1 at -30

O3  280m- 30m subs, 1x1 at -30

S2  280m - 30m subs, 1x1 at -30

Total of 14.5 hours exposure

Processing

Calibrated, aligned,stacked in Maxim along with RC Astro consol.  Color combine using Fits Liberator/Photoshop CS4 and the clipped layer mask method described by a nice video from  Ken Crawford.

About this Object

The Rosette Nebula is a large, circular H II 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 of the cluster having been formed from the nebula's matter.

The cluster and nebula lie at a distance of some 5,200 light years from Earth (although estimates of the distance vary considerably) and measure roughly 130 light years in diameter. The radiation from the young stars excite the atoms in the nebula, causing them to emit radiation themselves producing the emission nebula we see. The mass of the nebula is estimated to be around 10,000 solar masses.

It is believed that stellar winds from a group of O and B stars are exerting pressure on interstellar clouds to cause compression, followed by star formation in the nebula. This star formation is currently still ongoing.

A survey of the nebula with the Chandra X-ray Observatory in 2001 has revealed the presence of very hot, young stars at the core of the Rosette Nebula. These stars have heated the surrounding gas to a temperature in the order of 6 million kelvins causing them to emit copious amounts of X-rays.