Here’s the latest astrophotography offering, The Rosette Nebula (NGC2244). The Rosette Nebula is an area of ionized gas situated in the constellation of Monoceros (which is near to Orion). The open star cluster at the centre of the ionized gas region is NGC2244.

This is a false colour image which maps the light emitted by Hydrogen gas as green, double ionized oxygen as blue and sulphur as red. The gas is excited by the close proximity of the young stars within the open cluster.

The Rosette Nebula is 5000 light years from earth, and measures 130 light years in diameter. To put this into context, thee nearest star from earth is 4 light years away, so this is a large structure.

Thanks for looking, Steve