Location / Date:

Eggersdorf, GER / 16.+17.+23.+24. February  2016

Telescope/ Lens:

Mount:

Celestron CGE GPS

Camera:

Atik 383L+

Exposure time:

15x1200"  Astronomik Ha 6nm

9x 1200" Astronomik [OIII] 12 nm

Total exposure:

Description:

The Rosette Nebula is a huge star forming area and part of the giant complex of nebulae in the constellation of Unicorn. Other nebulae of this complex are the Fox Fur and the Cone nebula.

The Rosetta nebula contains ionized hydrogen with the mass of about 11,000 times the mass of the sun and even if the age of nebula and star cluster  is estimated to be 500.000 years only massive changes seem to take place in the area of the HII emission. It is likely that a stellar wind coming from NGC2244 has cleaned the center from dust and gas so a giant hole arised extending to about 12 light years.

Among hydrogen some dust resides in the Rosetta nebula reflecting the light of the very hot stars in NGC2244, expecially the blue components. The prominet OIII line in the spectrum of this nebula is proving the occurance of oxygen abound.

The surrounding matter is expanding at a speed of 20 km per second until it will dissolve in a couple of million years.

Image recording:

Frank Iwaszkiewicz

Image processing: