Although the much brighter (apparent magnitude 4.8) open cluster NGC 2244 at the centre of The Rosette Nebula was discovered in 1690 by John Flamsteed, the Rosette Nebula itself was discovered only in 1830 by John Herschel, son of the more famous William Herschel.

The Rosette Nebula is a vast cloud of dust and gas extending well over one degree across and covering an apparent area of sky about ten times that of the full Moon. The central star cluster is visible in binoculars and seen quite well in small telescopes. The nebula itself is more difficult to spot visually and requires a telescope with low magnification at a dark site. Good sky transparency and a wide-field eye piece will show a faint circular glow around a central ‘hole’ containing NGC 2244.

Packing in just over 10,000 solar masses worth of hydrogen, this nebula still houses many new, hot and bright stars that heat the surrounding gas from about 100 to over 10,000 Kelvin, though certain smaller areas in the centre reach up to six million Kelvin leading to huge amounts of X-ray emission. This great increase in temperature causes just as large an increase in pressure, high enough to occasionally create new stars. Some of the stars are from within the last few thousand years - close to nothing on the cosmic time scale.

Stellar winds from the central cluster have swept out the hollow at the centre of the Rosette, extending out further to form all the intriguing structures in the dust lanes. The small dark dust clouds in a line to the lower right of the core are Bok Globules, so named as they were first observed by Bart Bok in the 1940s. They contain dense cosmic dust and gas from which star formation may take place. However, can you make out a leaping leopard, a donkey or even a Labrador’s head?!