Ted Wolfe captured this image using the telescope installed in his Naples backyard.

Astrophotographer Ted Wolfe looks up at the night sky through telescopes from his home in Southwest Florida and photographs it through specialized cameras. His pictures of colliding galaxies, dying stars, supernovas, glowing nebulas, etc., are published in the leading national magazines in the field of astronomy. Exhibits of his pictures have appeared in numerous science museums, universities and institutions, including a 20-month show featuring a large number of his images at the Kennedy Space Center. A full collection of his pictures are on permanent display at the Center for Space Studies at the University of Florida.

Nebulas in space can form intriguing shapes that can bring our imagination into play. This object is a good example. A man named Robert Burnham wrote a classic astronomy book called the Celestial Handbook. Burnham saw a throne or pedestal shape in this picture and he titled the object The Throne of God.

While its more common name is the Cone Nebula, I have always preferred the more dramatic Throne of God. In this heavenly setting the role of God is being played by a brilliant blue-white seventh-magnitude star named (undramatically) HD 47887. It seems to be hovering right over the throne.

Making the whole thing even more pertinent to the holidays is the fact that HD47887 is also part of another, much larger object, not shown here, which is called the Christmas Tree Cluster. It is an open cluster of bright young stars which form the shape of a Christmas tree with HD47887 being the top star on the tree.

So this wonderful blue star fires our imagination different ways depending on what we see around it governed by the size of the field covered by the telescope.

It gets better or more Christmassy. The man who discovered the throne was Sir William Herschel, the great English astronomer. When did he discover it? Well, the day after Christmas, Dec. 26, 1785. Unfortunately, Herschel was a mathematician, not a literary figure. He named it simply H V.27. So much for putting a little pizzazz on it.

The throne lies about 2,600 light years away from us over in the constellation Monoceros. This is in the relatively nearby Orion arm of the galaxy not to be confused with the Orion constellation, although many of the objects in the constellation reside in that spiral arm.

The thrones size is about seven light years in length. This makes it a pretty large object. Remember that one light year is equal to 6 trillion miles.

What is the throne made out of? It is a pillar of gas and dust that has been carved out of the surrounding red field of gaseous nebulosity. The bright blue star above it, HD47887, is a spectral type B3 giant. It would appear that the ultraviolet radiation from this star is the cause of the trunk-like shape of the throne.

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Looking Up: The Throne of God: A very appropriate nebula for the holidays