A rose in the sky

This is the Rosette Nebula in the Monoceros constellation.
A high resolution photo is available at: http://dark.astrodigital.net

NGC 2232 in Monoceros

Here we are again! I wish you a happy new earth year 2012. Let's look at the stars again! Towards the galactic disk, in the Monoceros constellation, an impressive open star cluster called NGC2232 is visible even in small instruments. This group of stars has a brightness of 4.2 mag and an apparent size of 53 arcmin in our sky. It has a diameter of approx. 18 light years and its light travels 1200 years to reach our planet [Wikipedia]. A high resolution image is available at: http://dark.astrodigital.net.