This week’s StellarShot was submitted by Stan Smith. His colorful image of NGC 2264 has some amazing detail and contrast. To “Own the Night” Stan used his Stellarvue SVX80T with SFFRT80T reducer/flattener. We hope you can appreciate this as we do. Thanks for sharing it with us all Stan.

Description:
NGC 2264 contains two astronomical objects as a single object: Cone Nebula, and Christmas Tree Cluster. The objects are located in the Monoceros constellation, about 2600 light-years from Earth. A relatively difficult object to image because of the various wavelengths of light emitted and varying brightness levels, the Stellarvue SVX080T was up to the task again.

Details:
Integration Time: 8.5 Hours
Bortle Dark-Sky Scale: 4.00
Completion Date: 1-27-2020
Location: Westminster, SC (EST) USA
Imaging Telescope: Stellarvue SVX80T w/ SFFRT80T Focal Reducer/Flattener
Aperture: 80mm
Camera: ATIK 490EX Monochrome
Filters: Chroma 3nm, Ha, SII and OIII 36mm unmounted narrowband
Software: SGP, PHD2, PixInsight & Photoshop
Image copyright Stan Smith at Dark Sky Astronomy; www.darkskyastro.com