NGC 2244 (Rosette Nebula) · Seestar S30 · 2026-01-20

NGC 2244 is an open star cluster embedded within the Rosette Nebula, a large HII region in the constellation Monoceros located about 5,200 light-years away. The nebula itself spans roughly 130 light-years across, one of the larger star-forming regions in this part of the galaxy, with the young, hot O-type stars of NGC 2244 having formed from and now carving out a central cavity in the surrounding gas. The rose-like shape that gives the nebula its name comes from the shell of glowing gas surrounding this central cavity. NGC 2244/the Rosette is a favorite narrowband target, with Hα and O III filters (often combined in an SHO palette) producing the classic red-and-teal “rose” rendering popular in amateur astrophotography.

[Source: Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosette_Nebula]

Annotated Image

The annotated version is shown above - click it to zoom. Open the annotated image at full resolution.

Sky Location

The chart above shows where this image sits on the night sky. The yellow outline is its field of view, with the picture itself drawn at its true orientation; north is up and east is left. Click the chart to zoom in, and use "open full resolution" for the full-size chart.

Image Details

PixInsight Processing

1. Image Integration
2. BlurXTerminator (AI deconvolution) (x2)
3. GraXpert (gradient removal)
4. Spectrophotometric Color Calibration
5. NoiseXTerminator (AI denoise)
6. StarXTerminator (star removal)
7. Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch (x4)
8. Curves Transformation
9. PixelMath
10. HDR Multiscale Transform

NGC 2244 is an open star cluster embedded within the Rosette Nebula, a large HII region in the constellation Monoceros located about 5,200 light-years away. The nebula itself spans roughly 130 light-years across, one of the larger star-forming regions in this part of the galaxy, with the young, hot O-type stars of NGC 2244 having formed from and now carving out a central cavity in the surrounding gas. The rose-like shape that gives the nebula its name comes from the shell of glowing gas surrounding this central cavity. NGC 2244/the Rosette is a favorite narrowband target, with Hα and O III filters (often combined in an SHO palette) producing the classic red-and-teal “rose” rendering popular in amateur astrophotography.

[Source: Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosette_Nebula]

Annotated Image

The annotated version is shown above - click it to zoom. Open the annotated image at full resolution.

Sky Location

The chart above shows where this image sits on the night sky. The yellow outline is its field of view, with the picture itself drawn at its true orientation; north is up and east is left. Click the chart to zoom in, and use "open full resolution" for the full-size chart.

Image Details

PixInsight Processing

1. Image Integration
2. BlurXTerminator (AI deconvolution)
3. GraXpert (gradient removal)
4. Spectrophotometric Color Calibration
5. NoiseXTerminator (AI denoise)
6. Multiscale Adaptive Stretch
7. Curves Transformation