This "Christmas Tree Cluster"
is full of young stars - still surrounded by the gas nebula within which they were originally born.
Dense, cold clouds of interstellar dust particles (carbon etc) - obscure the starlight - and form dark cone like pillars (e.g. lower part of the image).
Photographers - our hardworking students - Maria Schütt and Karen Pardos Olsen - 24 x 3,5 min = 84 minutes - 5 " APO - Canon EOS 10D - during the cold and icy night of Feb 15-16 2005 .
The Cone Nebula (upper part of the image - North is downwards) is located at the southern end of the star cluster NGC 2264 - distance of both objects : about 2600 lightyears.
This image shows a comparison of our widefield Cone Nebula Photo with a zoom photo, performed by the
space telescope.
Click for Space Telescope Photo.
Click for Christmas Tree Cluster, as photographed from California
Click for Christmas Tree Cluster, as photographed by Phillip Perkins