The Rosette Nebula is an emission nebula, a large star forming region located in the constellation Monoceros, the Unicorn.

The nebula is a large cloud of gas and dust that lies near a large molecular cloud and is closely associated with the open cluster NGC 2244, whose stars were formed from the nebula’s matter in the last five million years.

The Rosette (or Rosetta) Nebula’s appearance in optical light resembles a rose flower or the rosette, the stylized flower design used in sculptural objects since ancient times, and the nebula was named after the design.

The nebula’s red colour cannot be seen, only recorded photographically.

The Rosette Nebula has an apparent magnitude of 9.0 and is approximately 5,200 light years distant from Earth.

It is about 65 light years in radius, significantly larger than the famous Orion Nebula (M42) in Orion, which is only 12 light in radius, but much closer to us (1,344 light years). The Rosette Nebula’s other designations are Caldwell 49, SH 2-275, and CTB 21.

The Rosette Nebula and the cluster NGC 2244 are about 130 light years in diameter, which translates into more than a degree across, roughly five times the size of the full Moon.

Nikon D7200 (unmodified); Sky-Watcher ED80 Pro Refractor and a Tele Vue 0.8x Reducer/Flattener @ 480mm / f/6; ISO 800; IDAS LPS-P2 Filter; Celestron AVX mount; guided with SSAG; and PHD2; 45 x 4 minute subs (total integration is 180 minutes or 3.00 hours).

Shot in RAW; stacked using Pixinsight (Calibration Bias, Dark and Flats were used); processed in Pixinsight and Photoshop CC.

Imaged from Beckwith Township, Ontario, Canada.