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M42

The Great Nebula in Orion

M42 is one of the most well known and studied deep space objects (DSO’s) in the night sky. Located as the central ‘star’ of Orion’s Sword, the diffuse emission/reflection nebula is visible to the naked eye even in moderately light polluted urban skies.

At a distance of approximately 1,344 light years this is the closest region of star formation to the Earth and it’s study has assisted in the development of theories on star and planetary formation.

The colours of the nebula range from red (Ha emission) into blue violet (reflection) and even green (O emission). The source energy for the emission and reflection regions comes from the massive, hot, bright O type stars at that form the trapezium asterism.

M42 10 December 2015

After a drought of imaging opportunities it was finally time to try out the gear on M42 for the first time.

December 19, 2015 in Deep Space, Emission Nebula, M42, Messier, Nebula.

M42 – The Great Nebula in Orion

My first attempts at imaging the M42 nebula during a visit to a client minesite on Halmahera Island, as well as a comparison from downloaded data.

April 30, 2015 in M42, Messier, Nebula.

Gallery

Full moon Aug 14 moon_2015_05_23 Cat's Paw colorised 1_M16 M20_DC HOO Obs-CEM60 20200801_155711

Current Moon Phase


Waning Gibbous Moon
Waning Gibbous Moon

The moon is currently in Capricorn
The moon is 18 days old

Distance: 61 earth radii
Ecliptic latitude: -3 degrees
Ecliptic longitude: 299 degrees
Joe's

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