This iconic object is the brightest nebula in the northern hemisphere and one of the only ones visible to the naked eye, seen as the "sword" hanging beneath Orion's Belt. I think it is the most spectacular deep eye object to see from my backyard with a telescope.
At only 1300 light years away, it is one of the closest regions of massive star formation to earth. The red tint is due to large amounts of hydrogen gas. Capturing this true color image did not require narrowband filters because of the brightness of the gas colors.
At the center of M42 is the Trapezium, which are the four stars tightly located in the center of the white portion of the image. More Trapezium stars are seen in my longer focal length image of this object, seen
here.
Besides the main attraction here of M42, numerous other objects are also seen, described here moving up from M42:
- The bright circular area surrounding the bright star just left of image center is known as M43 or De Mairan’s Nebula.
- The region immediately above M43 is not designated but is very interesting, with bright stars and dark dust clouds
- Near the top of the image is the Running Man Nebula (NGC 1977 or Sh2-279).
- Finally, at the top of the image is the imaginatively named Coal Car Cluster (MGC 1981), a beautiful cluster which is overshadowed by the nearby bright nebulae.
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