NGC2264 is the designation for an area with two astronomical objects, the Cone Nebula and the Christmas Tree Cluster. They are located in the Monoceros constellation 2,600 light years from Earth. That is 800 parsecs for the Star Wars fans.

It is fitting that NGC 2264 with the Christmas Cluster is visible in December. I created the image below using the Hubble color palette and keeping the green heavy result; it brings to mind a Christmas tree with snow coming down.

The final image was created the same way as most my images. Captured with a monochrome camera, I used narrowband filters to isolate the Sulfur, Hydrogen alpha, and Oxygen emissions. The pictures were taken over several weeks in December. The completed image is made up of 295 images, over 24 hours exposure time. Final editing was done in PixInsight. NGC2264 The Cone Nebula

• SII: 90 images, 7.6 hours
• Ha: 95 images, 7.9 hours
• OIII: 104 images, 8.7 hours