NGC 2264 – a seasonal cluster

Although I have imaged the stars of NGC 2264 – the Christmas Tree – before, I have never managed to get the Cone nebula that extended southwards from the tip of the tree. The whole of NGC 2264 is, in fact, immersed in nebulosity. Not much luck this time either! Despite the UHC filter and a lot of careful fiddling around with GIMP to try and tease out something, the results from the PD, for once, are disappointing. For what it is worth, here it is. I have also added a line drawing of the tree so you can get your eye in, and also a version with the nebulosity suppressed. This is closer to what you can see with the eyeball imager.

You can maybe just about make out the start of the cone at the tree tip.