By Vedant Malhotra | 2025-01-07

Monkey head nebula
On 01/02/2025 10:00 pm by EGIDIO VERGANI| Milano Italia
The NGC 2174 nebula has a very particular shape and has been nicknamed "monkey head" precisely because it shows the vague appearance of a monkey's head seen in profile.
In reality this celestial object, which is located about 6400 light years from us, is an area of star formation, a cloud of gas - mainly hydrogen - and dust within which there are some young, very bright stars. It is precisely their ultraviolet radiation that illuminates the nebula, ionizing the hydrogen of which it is composed and thus giving it that typical reddish color. The photo was taken from the polluted sky of Milan with approximately 15 hours of exposure
Skywatcher 150-750 telescope, Asi 2600 Mc camera, Ioptron Gem 28 mount, Zwo corrector, Optolong L-Enhance filter, guide 60- 240, Asi 224 Mc
Dss+Graxpert+Ps+Astro panel