This well known field is located in the constellation Monoceros, and contains a lot of interesting objects. At left side is visible an open cluster, NGC2264, embedded in an emission nebula called The Christmas Tree for its particular shape. At the end is located the Cone Nebula, a dark nebulosity. Just below is visible the Hubble Variable Nebula. In the middle can be noticed two open clusters: NGC2259 (at top) and Tr5 (at bottom). At right side are present four reflection nebulae, of which the biggest is IC2169 with the small o.c. Cr95 embedded in it. The other three reflecting nebulosity are (from left to right) NGC2247, NGC2245 and IC446.

Exposure : three 35 min. negatives scanned with Polaroid Sprintscan 35+, blended in Picture Window 2.0 and enhanced with Photoshop 4.0


Telescope : Takahashi FS/102 at F/6 with focal reducer on a Losmandy G11


Guiding : ST4 on a Vixen 80/910mm.


Film : unhypered Kodak Ektapress PJ400


Location : Champorcher (Val d'Aosta) - 1800mt. height


Date : February 05, 2000