The Christmas Tree Cluster is NGC 2264. The "cone" part is on the left part of the image, just below center. SEDS info here. Also some good info here.
Image and processing notes: Combination of 13x4 minute exposures (52 minutes total exposure). This area is very dim and I could use more exposure time. I did 3 applications of Neat Image noise reduction, as well as a selective Gaussian blur to help tame the noise. Takahashi TOA 130 (a 5" APO refractor) and Canon EOS D20a. This is resized to be about 30% of the original's size. My current image processing workflow is here. The images from this session feature 29 light frames median combined, along with 9 dark frames. On the darks, I did both a median combine and an average combine, and then averaged those together. Temperature ranged from ~51 degrees F at the start of imaging to 42 degrees when I was packing up and doing my last darks.
 Slightly fuller crop |  Bluer version! |
 Christmas Tree area - my best effort with the Nikon D100 - a major challenge with the due to weak red response of this camera. | Nebula Page |
| Astronomy Index: I actually want to find something specific Astronomy Pictures: Dick Locke's Astrophoto Gateway page.... |
hits.