Nature Photography

Bird, wildlife, and landscape photography by Jon Rista

The Rosette Nebula


Rosette Nebula, named after a little rose, is one of the two major nebulas in the constellation Monoceros (Greek for Unicorn). Monoceris is the east north-eastern neighbor of Orion, and rises directly overhead by evening twilight during March. Rosette nebula is a dimmer, more challenging target to image than many of the nebula in Orion. Orion is full of some of the brightest nebula in the sky. Most of it’s neighbors like Monoceros and Gemini contain much dimmer deep sky objects. Rosette Nebula is an H II region, or a region of low density hydrogen gas, and is part of a giant molecular cloud in Monoceros (similar to the OMCC of Orion). The gas of Rosette emits light directly, rather than reflecting light from nearby stars, and as such is called an emission nebula.

Rosette is accompanied by an open cluster of stars near it’s center, called NGC 2244. The stars of this cluster are particularly intense, primarily large O-type (blue giant) stars that emit light at the highest energy levels. O-type blue giants are as much as 400,000 times brighter than the Sun, and at least 50 times more massive. Blue giants are not the largest stars, however…that crown is worn by red giants, many of which are so large they could swallow every planet in our solar system out to and including Jupiter, reaching nearly far enough to swallow Saturn!

From the periphery of the nebula, dark fingers of cold gas and dust can be seen reaching inwards towards the cluster in the center. These fingers of gas and dust show up dark, as they are too cool to emit light, and instead absorb it. These fine filaments of interstellar matter are what give so many nebula their delicate yet intriguing appearance. At some point in the future I hope to bring more detailed, close up views of some of these regions of nebula like Rosette.

12 Comments

  3. Judy

    The nebula is certainly well named. I think the image is wonderful and that it is rather amazing that you are able to achieve captures like this. Magical!

    • Jon Rista

      Thanks, Judy! I’m pretty amazed I can get images like this from my back yard. Light pollution is so bad these days, and just keeps getting worse, that I can only see a few hundred stars and cannot see the milky way at all from my yard. A special little filter (Astronomik CLS) is what’s made it all possible.

      I truly cannot wait to get a portable power generator, so I can head out to a dark sky site where you can REALLY see the stars, see the milky way, and see what I can get. There is so much fine, minute, filamentary detail in these nebula that I haven’t quite been able to capture yet. I also want to get wider field images, where you can see entire constellations and all the nebula that surround them.

      • Judy

        While the generator might scare away any critters; it won’t scare away the stars!! This is probably a good mix depending where you go that is away from light pollution.

        • Jon Rista

          I’m looking to find a “quiet” generator. Most are around 65dB, some are as loud as 70-75dB (very loud). I came across a couple that were 55dB, which is about as quiet as conversation. It’s expensive, though, $500. I can’t afford that right now, so maybe in the future.

      • Kamal

        thank u jon ,u helped me a lot , now i know , i v to start very very small & make a wise planning ahead . i loved the cosmos since i was a child , but became a doctor. i loooove your pictures & admire u also a lot .

        • Jon Rista

          I’m glad you like my work! Best of luck if you give it a try. Starting small is good, it’ll minimize the frustrations (it’s a complicated kind of photography), and hopefully give you a chance to learn the ropes and make some beautiful images. 🙂

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