Two years after capturing the hydrogen channel of this image and five months after the last time I was able to do any astro-photography, I have finally managed to finish this image of the Cone and Fox Fur Nebulae:

You might notice that this doesn’t look exactly like the NASA APOD image I referenced in my last post (https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap161224.html).  Aside from the rotation, it is mostly different in that this is a narrowband image, while the APOD image is (or appears to be) a broadband/natural color image.  In both cases the dominant features are composed of hydrogen (in red), but the blue portion in this image comes from oxygen, while the blue in the APOD image is just due to some very blue stars.  Narrowband images also suppress the stars to a large degree, so they are much more dominant in the APOD photo.

The Cone Nebula is pretty obvious on the left side.  There is also a well known star cluster called “The Christmas Tree” just to the right of the cone.  The bright star near the tip of the cone is the top of the tree and the even brighter one to the right of it is the base.  Since the stars are suppressed in this image the tree shape is not so obvious.  You can see it more clearly in the APOD photo, and they are showing it with the tree upright.

Just below the base of the Christmas Tree is the Fox Fur Nebula.  It does look like some kind of fur, but I’d have to be convinced about the “fox” part.

The rest of the image contains interesting nebulosity, but none of it has a common name.  I’m curious about the faint column in the lower right, which looks vaguely like a comet (it’s not).  But there is really a lot of stuff going on here, with streaks in various colors and some repetition of patterns.

The target area is in the constellation Monoceros and not far from the Rosette Nebula, which happens to be the target I plan to shoot next.  I’ve done it before, but think I can do a better job now.