Everybody Loves a Cluster with a Nebula
This is NGC 2264, the Cone Nebula, and the Christmas Tree Cluster.
The bright stars that appear to lie upon this nebula are part of the Christmas Tree Cluster. The cluster contains more than 600 stars, but most of them are not visible to the naked eye. The Christmas Tree Cluster was discovered in 1784 by William Herschel.
A year later, Herschel revisited the area and discovered the Cone Nebula. It’s that small, black triangle in the upper right of the nebula. This area is a patch of dust that blocks the light from the ionized gas behind it. The entire conglomerate is designated as NGC 2264.
NGC 2264 is about 2,500 light years away from us. You can spot the Christmas Tree Cluster with your naked eye or with a pair of binoculars; it has a visual magnitude of +3.9. You’ll need a telescope to view the Cone Nebula. I could not find a reference that provides the visual magnitude of this emission nebula.
NGC 2264 will be about 30֩ above the Eastern horizon as the skies get dark on February 1st.
There’s another bright nebula with a star cluster in the same region of the sky. It’s NGC 2237, the Rosette Nebula, and it surrounds the Rosette Cluster, NGC 2244.
The star cluster has a visual magnitude of +5.5 and contains about 2500 stars, (although most of them are not visible to the naked eye.) The nebula has a visual magnitude of +9.0. Both are about 5,500 light years away from us.
The Rosette Nebula is not a planetary nebula that was caused by the explosion of a supernova. The cluster is a group of stars that were created from a dense cloud of dust. The creation of the stars generated intense radiation and strong stellar winds. This radiation caused the ionization of the surrounding dust, making it visible through a telescope. The pressure of the winds literally hollowed out the center of the dust cloud and compressed the surrounding dust, resulting in more star formation. This nebula is believed to be about 130 light years in diameter, and the dark hole at its center is about 30 light years in diameter.
What you can look for in February’s Night Skies
February starts with the second brightest star in the sky shining just above the Eastern horizon as the brightest star (the Sun) sets in the west.
Most of the planets are in the early evening sky. Starting in the east, we have Mars above the horizon, followed by Jupiter and Uranus in the Eastern skies, while Neptune, Venus, and Saturn are visible in the western half. Venus, the waning Moon, and Neptune will appear to be very close together at 5:44 a.m. on Feb. 1. Remember, you need some very good binoculars or a telescope to see Neptune.
The constellation Orion will be visible about 35֩ degrees above the ESE horizon.
There are no major meteor showers in February.
Moon Phases:
1st Quarter is February 5
Full Moon is February 12
Last Quarter is February 20
New Moon is February 27
