The Caldwell Objects

49 & 50
nebula starts to
"morph" into luminous
rafts populated by
dark, slithering snakes.
There are really two
ways to observe the
Rosette Nebula at low
power. One is to concentrate
on the dark squiggles
and trace their patterns.
The other is to take quick
glances at the bright
patches and record their
appearances. Photographs
tend to exaggerate the
bright nebulosity, while
eyepiece views tend to
emphasize the dark. The
latter nebulosity forms a
complex web covering an
equally complex matrix of
glowing patches and
stringy vapors. The western portion of the
Rosette's inner edge is sharply angled, in marked
contrast with its diffuse eastern side. The sky
appears darkest beyond the nebula's northeastern
perimeter. With a quick glance four prominent
patches of bright nebulosity stand out to the
northwest, northeast, southwest, and southeast.
(Again, my estimate of 5th magnitude for the
Rosette Nebula describes the brightness of only
the northwestern segment.) However, the entire
nebula seems skewed to the west, as if a gentle
wind were pushing its vapors in that direction.
The section on the southeastern end of the central
cluster cavity is remarkably apparent and
resembles a bank of fog pressing against a curved
range of mountains. And an eerily cometlike
glow can be seen on the northwestern side of the
cavity; the "comet" has a braided "tail" that
extends to the southwest. Just
200
beyond its bright inner edge, the nebula's
western portion contains a conspicuous peanutshaped
bay of darkness, out of which thin coils of
emission nebulosity seem to extend westward.
Amazingly, increasing the magnification of the
Genesis beyond 23x does not help pull out any
other details at all.
Unlike the view in photographs, the cluster
itself seems free of nebulosity at the eyepiece of
the Genesis. I could detect fuzziness only near the
southeastern end, and this only with averted
vision; I saw no fuzziness with a direct gaze. Also,
the roundness of the central hollow in
photographs is not well reflected in the eyepiece
view. The cavity is largely oval and bows out to
the west. Certainly this is an optical illusion,
however. The cluster's six brightest stars are
neatly organized into two rows of three stars
each, with the yellowish nonmem-ber, 12
Monocerotis, at the southeastern side.
Deep-Sky Companions: The Caldwell Objects