Thanks for this information Brent, I will be
certain to check out the refs you have kindly sent!! And then have another good
look at the region to see once more what all the fuss is about!!
{:+))
The NGC designations in the area of the
Rosette nebula have indeed been quite confused in the past and are still shown
or listed incorrectly in many current references. The preferred
designation for the nebula itself is NGC 2237, although portions of it were
discovered separately (NGC 2238 and NGC 2246). The included cluster has
the preferred designation of NGC 2244 and an alternate designation of NGC 2239
(due to a 1 minute RA error by John Herschel). For more information on the
cluster identities, see my Webb Society monograph "The 'Non-Existent' Star
Clusters of the RNGC", page 58, available from the Webb Society (http://www.webbsociety.freeserve.co.uk/).
- Brent Archinal
----- Forwarded by Brent A
Archinal/GD/USGS/DOI on 04/17/2002 10:58 AM -----
owner-netastrocatalog@atmob.org
(netastrocatalog IAAC Digest) Sent by: owner-netastrocatalog@atmob.org
04/13/2002 07:52 PM Please respond to netastrocatalog-announce
To:
netastrocatalog-digest@atmob.org cc:
Subject: netastrocatalog IAAC Digest V4
#203
The Rosette Nebula itself is actually several
NGC numbers (including NGC 2237, 2238, 2239 and 2246), and is a large
EMISSION nebula located 3000-5000 light-years away. The stellar winds from
the open cluster of stars known as NGC 2244 has cleared a hole in the
nebula's center.
see http://www.seds.org/messier/xtra/ngc/n2244.html
and http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000111.html
and http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020317.html for more
info.