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Community photo entitled The Rosette Nebula by Steven Bellavia on 01/24/2025 at Smithfield, VA

The Rosette Nebula

On 01/24/2025 10:30 pm by Steven Bellavia| Smithfield, VA

The Rosette Nebula, Caldwell 49, is a large spherical H-II region located near one end of a giant molecular cloud in the Monoceros region of the Milky Way Galaxy. The open cluster NGC 2244 (Caldwell 50) is closely associated with the nebulosity, the stars of the cluster having been formed from the nebula's matter.
The cluster and nebula are 5,000 light-years from Earth and measure roughly 130 light years in diameter. The radiation from the young stars excites the atoms in the nebula, causing them to emit radiation themselves producing the emission nebula we see. The mass of the nebula is estimated to be around 10,000 solar masses.
Included in the image are NGC 2239, NGC 2244, NGC 2246 and NGC 2252

Telescope: Celestron C6 SCT
Starizona HyperStar C6 v4 Reducer-Corrector
Camera: ZWO ASI 533MC Pro, Cooled to -5C
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro
ZWO 1.25-inch duo-band filter

126 x 120 second exposures, processed in PixInsight, Adobe Photoshop and Canon Photo Digital Professional