Celestial Christmas tree

2600 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Monoceros sits the Christmas Tree Cluster (NGC 2264), topped by the Cone Nebula. Discovered by William Herschel in the 18th century when he noted a large, visually stunning star
resembling an angel ornament at the top of a celestial Christmas tree.

This beautiful portrait of the nebula was captured by a Takahashi FSQ-106ED telescope at IC Astronomy Observatory in Spain. It combines narrowband data that isolates light from sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen wavelengths to create this
false-color image.

The raw data was curated by a remote telescope service and then combined, calibrated, and processed by Richard
Leighton to produce the final image.