With Christmas rapidly approaching, and the International Year of Astronomy rapidly drawing to an end, I thought it appropriate to post a Festive deep-sky image. This is the Christmas Tree cluster (NGC 2264, 2,500 light years away in the constellation Monoceros) and the Cone nebula These objects can be seen rising from the SE around 10:00 p.m. (just now) and moving across the southern part of the sky during the course of the evening.
