Even in light-polluted skies, our instruments provide some inkling of the grandeur that these objects possess. And the nice thing about these objects is that they're attainable in virtually any amateur-sized telescope. The list is roughly arranged beginning with winter objects and it ends with those especially well-placed in the autumn. However, many are accessible over a period of several months, so don't let this sequence be a hindrance when checking to see what's up. A mass of gas that is caused to glow by ultraviolet radiation from the stars embedded in it, like a fluorescent light bulb.
Photographs show the color as distinctly red, due to the hydrogen, and green, due to oxygen.
There is enough material in the nebula to form about 10,000 stars like our Sun. The Trapezium in the heart of the gas cloud is a good example of a cluster of new stars. There are four bright stars in the Trapezium, plus two fainter ones. The diameter of the nebula is roughly 30 light years, or more than 20,000 times the diameter of our solar system. It lies at a distance of between 1600 and 1900 light years away from us.