Christmas tree nebula in the constellation Unicorn

For Christmas, astronomer Jean Dean shares a stunning photograph of the NGC 2264 nebula 2,600 light-years from Earth.

Nebula image NGC 2264 taken by astronomer Jean Dean.(Photo: SWNS).

Dr. Jean Dean, 61, took a special telescope photo on a December night in the backyard of his home garden on Guernsey Island. Huge cone-shaped dust clouds lit by thousands of sparkling stars create meaningful images during the Christmas season.

"To take this beautiful picture, I sat in the garden for 5 hours. It was very cold!", Dean said. "NGC 2264 is a lovely nebula! Like the meaning of Christmas, the anniversary of Jesus' birth, the red dust clouds you see is where the new stars are born."

NGC 2264 is also known as the Christmas Tree Cluster and the Cone Nebula . It is located in the constellation Unicorns about 2,600 light-years from Earth. This emission nebula is not visible to the naked eye due to the lack of giant stars.