The Rosette Nebula

At a distance of 5,000 light-years in the constellation Monoceros, the nebula spans about 100 light-years of space and has spawned a cluster of stars approximately 4 million years ago. The stellar winds from these stars has pushed away the nebular material surrounding them, creating a hole in the center of the cloud, which make it appear to resemble a huge rose. The nebula spans more than a degree of sky but is too faint to be seen with the naked eye, despite a visual magnitude of about 5, because the glow is scattered so widely.

Taken November 19, 2008, about 10:30 p.m. 402 camera mounted on the 300mm Nikkor lens. Orion StarShoot autoguider mounted on the C-14, through the Meade focal reducer. 15 minutes exposure through each filter, using 10  90-second track and accumulates. Processing with Maxim DL and Photoshop. I never shot the Rosette before because of the location: Monoceros, a winter constellation. Nov. 19, 2008, was unusually mild.