The Fox Fur Nebula is much fainter than the Rosette (to which it is attached as part of the greater Monoceros Loop), but it has its own beauty. The SII signal occurs in the same regions as H-alpha (typical of HII regions), but the diffuse OIII around the core provides wonderful color contrast in SHO images like this one.
The Sh2-273 catalog entry covers the Cone and Fox Fur Nebulae area in general. Thankfully, we don’t make shawls out of Fox Fur anymore, so let’s say that the area looks like a wrinkled fleece blanket instead. The Christmas Tree Cluster at the center is NGC2264.
- Exposures (-10ºC, gain=100):
- H-alpha: 53×180s
- SII: 53×180s
- OIII: 50×180s
- Total exposure time: 7 hours 48 minutes
- Taken from Doylestown, PA, Feb 26 and 28, 2023
- Telescope: Takahashi FSQ-106ED with 0.73x reducer (f/3.7)
- Camera: ZWO ASI2600MM-Pro with Astrodon filters (5 nm)
- Mount: iOptron CEM60
- Guiding: ZWO ASI178MM (off-axis)
- Acquisition: NINA + PHD2 and ASTAP
- Processing: AstroPixelProcessor, PixInsight
Deep-sky Imaging 