Posted on 03/10/2023 11:41:47 AM PST by MtnClimber
Explanation: Few cosmic vistas excite the imagination like The Great Nebula in Orion. Visible as a faint celestial smudge to the naked-eye, the nearest large star-forming region sprawls across this sharp telescopic image, recorded on a cold January night in dark skies from West Virginia, planet Earth. Also known as M42, the Orion Nebula's glowing gas surrounds hot, young stars. About 40 light-years across, it lies at the edge of an immense interstellar molecular cloud only 1,500 light-years away within the same spiral arm of our Milky Way galaxy as the Sun. Along with dusty bluish reflection nebula NGC 1977 and friends near the top of the frame, the eye-catching nebulae represent only a small fraction of our galactic neighborhood's wealth of star-forming material. Within the well-studied stellar nursery, astronomers have also identified what appear to be numerous infant solar systems.
For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.
Pinging the APOD list.
I’ve looked in the night sky many a time and see Orion’s Belt. What is this image posted here ? I see nothing in there as I see in the sky.
Look under the first star in the belt. You can see a smudge if you are not in the city. With even cheap binocs you can see the nebula pretty clearly. Of course, it wont look like these photos.
The nebulas in Orion need either a large telescope or a long time-exposure camera and a long lens. This is not visible to the unaided eye. Some of the nebulas need imaging that is not in the visible wavelength. This includes X-ray, infrared, ultraviolet and gamma ray imaging. These images are displayed in visible altered images, otherwise we could not see them.
PS: wikipedia has a very clear photo of where to find it.
Waiting for Beetlejuice (Betelgeuse) to blow
Ol' Lori Lightfoot already did exactly that . . . LOL
That looks like a giant dislocated eyeball about to fly into a giant vagina.
I know where your mind is at...thinking about eyeballs.
My guess is that Betelgeuse will start shrinking as it collapses into a brown dwarf. A supernova would be purdy but not likely.
Here’s a picture I took last night with my Samsung S22 phone on 100x zoom...
Not bad for a dude in his backyard with a phone!
Even in our club’s 10” refractor, it doesn’t look like the photo. Still, it does show quite a bit of detail.
Nice!
When you are looking in the right place, you’ll see it, no problem, unless your skies are totally washed out. Even a pair of binoculars is helpful, if you have one.
Keep trying, you will see it!👍
Your eyes don’t colorize the gradient
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