Wallpaper author:
Judith Prana
23 Dec 2025
A Deep Space Christmas Tree (SHO)
The Christmas Tree Cluster (NGC 2264) is a stunning, young open star cluster in the constellation Monoceros, named for the tree-like shape its brightest stars form, resembling a celestial holiday decoration. It's a stellar nursery, just 1-5 million years old, located about 2,500 light-years away, offering astronomers insights into early star formation, and is visible with binoculars as a beautiful, twinkling tree in the winter sky. Over 13 hrs of narrow-band CMOS data from Telescope Live SPA1 remote observatory. Pre processing in Astro Pixel Processor, and all the Post processing completed in Pixinsight & Paintshop Pro, enjoy!
Dataset from which the image was processed
NGC 2264
11 credit
- Type of target............................................................................................................................Emission Nebula
- Camera............................................................................................................................QHY 600M
- Target coordinates............................................................................................................................RA 100.2167 Dec 9.8667
- Hemisphere............................................................................................................................Northern
- Telescope location............................................................................................................................Spain
- Transient event............................................................................................................................No
- Observed on............................................................................................................................22 Feb 2023 - 25 Dec 2023
Filter | Avg Exp (s) | Total Exposure | Subframes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Halpha | 300 | 4h35m | 55 |
| SII | 300 | 4h35m | 55 |
| OIII | 300 | 4h30m | 54 |