Stellar Shot of the Week
This fantastic image of the Cone and Fox Fur Nebulae was taken by Tony Hallas with his SVX180T.
Both of these objects are located approximately 2,700 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Monoceros. Among this cosmic gas and dust are mixes of reddish emission nebulae excited by energetic light from newborn stars and dark interstellar dust clouds.
According to Tony: A deep image of the Cone and Fox Fur Nebulae imaged from my home in Foresthill with a Stellarvue SVX 180mm f/7 and a ZWO 2600MM. RGB = 16 X 600 seconds for each color, H-a = 20 X 900 seconds, OIII = 25 X 1200 seconds. Imaged with MaxIm DL, processed with CCDStack, Registar, and Photoshop with various plugins.
Other Designations: Christmas Tree Cluster
- Fox Fur: NGC 2264, Sh2-273
- Cone: NGC 2264
Details:
Telescope: SVX180T
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MM Pro
Mount: Astro-Physics 1600GTO
Software: Adobe Photoshop, Auriga Imaging Registar, Diffraction Limited Maxim DL, Topaz Labs Topaz AI.
References:
Cone and Foxfur Nebula - AstroBin. (n.d.). AstroBin. https://app.astrobin.com/u/tonyhallas?i=qyt01a#gallery
APOD: 2024 December 24 – Fox Fur, Cone, and Christmas Tree. (n.d.). https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap241224.html
Wikipedia contributors. (2023, September 14). Fox Fur Nebula. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_Fur_Nebula
Wikipedia contributors. (2025, January 15). Cone nebula. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cone_Nebula
Send us your Stellarvue images! Email JPG images of your favorite astro-photographs taken with your Stellarvue refractor to: mail@stellarvue.com. Include in your email:
"I grant Stellarvue Inc. permission to use the attached image(s) online".
It is always appreciated by our viewers if you include an image of your telescope/camera set up, and include details such as field flattener, mount, camera, acquisition data, exposures, filters and what you used to process the image. Clear skies!