Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Orion (Ori)  ·  Contains:  41 Ori A)  ·  41 Ori C  ·  41 Ori D  ·  43 Ori)  ·  Great Orion Nebula  ·  M 42  ·  M 43  ·  Mairan's Nebula  ·  NGC 1976  ·  NGC 1982  ·  Orion Nebula  ·  The star Mizan Batil II (θ2 Ori  ·  The star Trapezium (θ1 Ori A  ·  The star θ1 Ori C  ·  The star θ1 Ori D
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M 42 Orion Nebula, Kent DeGroff
M 42 Orion Nebula
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M 42 Orion Nebula

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M 42 Orion Nebula, Kent DeGroff
M 42 Orion Nebula
Powered byPixInsight

M 42 Orion Nebula

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Description

This object is located 600 light-years away from us near the 2.2 magnitude star, Gamma Cassiopeia, which is only about 4 light years from the nebula. Outside the FOV, toward the bottom right, Gamma Cas is a variable star with surface temperature hotter than our sun.

Responsible for the appearance of the nebula, you can see that the "leading edge" of IC 59, in the direction of Gamma Cas, is glowing red from the intense radiation. The dust of the blue reflection nebula is behind it. The hydrogen is slowly dissipating. The bright partial nebula at lower left is part of IC 63 where the same thing is happening.

This image was processed to optimize the appearance of the nebula. The stellar limiting magnitude was decreased relative to the nebula to accomplish this.

Image Details: QHY 168M Camera, 60x30s CFA

Observatory: 10' Home Dome with DDW, Astro-physics 1200 GTO mount

OTA: 457mm F/4.2,  MPCC, OAG, Robofocus

Software: SGP, PlateSolve2, PHD2, PixInsight, GIMP, Starnet

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M 42 Orion Nebula, Kent DeGroff