The Great Orion Nebula: M42

The Great Orion Nebula (Messier 42)

 

Located below Orion's belt in the constellation of Orion, the Great Orion Nebula is the brightest nebula visible in the night sky. Even under light polluted skies, M42 can be seen with only a modest set of Binoculars (try it out if you haven't yet).

The Orion constellation: 1/11/2021 at 10:45PM EST from SE MI

The Constellation of Orion can be found during the winter months by looking south. As of today, January 11th, it will be visible in the south-east after sunset, reach its highest directly south at 11pm, and begin to set in the West just past 2:30am (for those of you in or near Michigan). I usually look for the 3 stars in a line that make up Orion's belt along with the two much brighter stars Betelgeuse (above the belt) and Rigel (below the belt).

Locating the Orion Nebula (M42)

The yellow box in the image is the same as my field-of-view in the main image of this post. M42 is part of a larger structure referred to as the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. Additional astronomical objects captured in this photo are: the Running Man Nebula (NGC 1977), Mairan's Nebula (M43), The Lost Jewel of Orion (star cluster NGC 1980).

The Orion Nebula a popular target for research. Other than being very large in our night sky, M42 is a stellar nursery where the formation of stars and protoplanets can be studied. There are apparently well over 2,000 stars that are responsible for illuminating the colorful clouds seen in the picture.

On your next night with a clear sky, have a set of binoculars handy and make sure you check it out!