Capturing outstanding detail and editing with a soft touch, Brad Zazalak’s image of NGC 2264 using the SHO palette takes our Photo of the Week title for November 26, 2021.

NGC 2264 refers to the Cone Nebula and the Christmas Tree Cluster in this image. The Snowflake Cluster and Fox Fur Nebula are also visible in this image.

NGC 2264 includes an open cluster of stars embedded in a diffuse nebula, located in the constellation of Monoceros. The Cone Nebula, visible in the lower-centre region of the image, is located in a turbulent star-forming region, and infrared images show just how many infant stars are embedded in the nebula.

Using a William Optics Gran Turismo 71 triplet with a 0.8 reducer/field flattener (f/4.72) and a SBIG STF-8300M CCD camera, Zazalak captured more than 22 hours of data from his backyard in Moosomin, Saskatchewan, in early November 2021. He processed the image in PixInsight and Photoshop.

Kimberly Sibbald’s image of the Milky Way over Red Rock Coulee, Alberta, receives our honourable mention this week.

Shooting with a Canon EOS R sporting a Sigma 14mm f/1.8 Art DG HSM lens (set to f/3.2) and a visible light and Hydrogen-alpha filter, Sibbald captured eight exposures at 20 seconds for the sky and four at two minutes for the ground on October 30, 2021.

“The red rock formations are called concretions and were formed in prehistoric seas as layers of sand, calcite and iron oxide collected around a dead organism such as shells or bones,” Sibbald wrote. “They grew as the circulating waters deposited more layers. Some measure up to 2.5 metres across and are considered some of the largest in the world.”