Christmas Tree Cluster and Cone Nebula (NGC2264)
This image was captured on a night with superb transparency. Unfortunately, heat radiated away so rapidly after sunset (when temperature was about +8 C) that at 9 PM my equipment was hit by a hard frost. I battled condensation on my objectives for the rest of night, only managing to capture 6 more useful frames before midnight, when my batteries died from running a small hair dryer.
Two more frames would have improved this image quite a bit - it was a little faint so the brightness has been pumped up, making it a bit grainy. In addition, my modified 50D has begun producing hi-ISO red band noise, probably because temperatures are now well above 0 C. Because this image consists mainly of faint red nebulosity, I couldn't process out the noise. Horizontal bands are quite visible in this image.