Even though it’s a galaxy-viewing season, I wanted to shoot a nebula for a change. This is my take on the Rosette Nebula (Caldwell 49) – a giant star-forming complex in the Monoceros constellation of our home Milky Way Galaxy. It is 130 light-years in diameter and located 5,200 light-years away from us. In the centre is an open star cluster NGC 2244, the young stars of which create massive shock-heated winds that blow the ionized bubble in the centre and excite the nebula’s gas to emit the red light.
The Rosette sets early this time of the year, so I shot it over three evenings to collect enough photons. The image nearly fills the frame of my camera, so there is plenty of resolution. Zoom in – it’s mesmerizing!