This beautiful deep-sky object known as NGC 2237 is a large emission nebula located in the constellation Monoceros. The nebula is 130 light-years across and contains many Herbig-Haro objects and Herbig Ae/Be stars, Bok globules, T Tauri stars, and clusters of newly formed stars. The dark dust filaments extending toward the nebula's center, dubbed "elephant trunks," are shaped by stellar winds, radiation from hot young stars, and electromagnetic forces. This nebula's name comes from its stylized flower pattern, which resembles flowers used in sculpture since antiquity. At the center of it is NGC 2244, an open star cluster containing several O-Type Stars that generate large amounts of radiation and stellar wind.
I took the photo on January 15, 2023, in Northern Virginia, near Washington D.C., with a total integration time of 4.5 hours. This remarkably sharp image was captured with a one-shot CCD camera equipped with a dual-narrowband filter to bring out the nebula's composition of Hydrogen-Alpha and Oxygen-III gasses.