Messier 42 - The Great Orion Nebula

This is pretty much everyone’s first target. It sure was mine. These images are about a year apart (more details to come as I have time to update the site) and you can certainly tell the difference.

This object is easily identified and seen with the naked eye in the southern sky and is very easy to find.

I will very likely find the time to re-process this one with some different color mappings, but we shall see. I have a lot of cool targets on my list!

From NASA: Believed to be the cosmic fire of creation by the Maya of Mesoamerica, M42 blazes brightly in the constellation Orion. Popularly called the Orion Nebula, this stellar nursery has been known to many different cultures throughout human history. The nebula is only 1,500 light-years away, making it the closest large star-forming region to Earth and giving it a relatively bright apparent magnitude of 4. Because of its brightness and prominent location just below Orion’s belt, M42 can be spotted with the naked eye, while offering an excellent peek at stellar birth for those with telescopes. It is best observed during January.