On the occasion of Christmas, here is a nebula that looks like a Christmas Tree.

However, traditionally, this interstellar formation is dubbed the Cone Nebula (named for the obvious cone shape), is located about 2700 light years away in the constellation Monoceros. The dark Cone Nebula region clearly contains much dust which blocks light from the emission nebula. The entire nebula is 7 light years in height. Over time, only the densest regions of the Cone will be left. Inside these regions, stars and planets may form. Astronomers believe the pillars are incubators for developing stars.

Originally in 2017, I had taken the picture in narrow band but represented them in natural colors. But, this time around, I created a false color image.

 

Below is the original picture that I took in 2017.

I took this image in the narrowband for TWENTY long hours (Hydrogen Alpha 27 images, Oxygen III 17 images & Sulphur 16 images of 20 minutes each) and then processed them to look like how it will look to our eyes in visible color spectrum.