My Wide Cone (and HVN)

Here is another image I took from the Ranch over Christmas. This is the Cone Nebula, otherwise known as NGC 2264. Actually, the Cone is seen as the small conical nebula at the bottom of the larger red dust complex. This entire complex (and associated star cluster) is referred to as the Christmas Tree -- so I of course had to image this over Christmas!

I really like this field -- lots of red emission nebulae, but also blue reflection and dark nebulae. Also, there is an additional treat -- Hubble's Variable Nebula (HVN).

The HVN is that small triangular white cloud in the lower right, almost to the edge of frame. It is called a variable nebula because the star that illuminates this patch of dust is a variable star -- pulsing in magnitude and causing the nebula to change shape and brightness over time. A bit of trivia -- this was the first object to ever be imaged by the famous 200" Hale Telescope at Palomar. So if you get the Astronomy version of Trivial Pursuit you are all set : )