Orion Constellation: Facts About the Hunter Orion Constellation: Facts About the Hunter By Kim Ann Zimmermann | July 19, 2012 04:46pm ET MORE While the Orion constellation is named after the hunter in Greek mythology, it is anything but stealthy. Orion, which is located on the celestial equator, is one of the most prominent and recognizable constellations in the sky and can be seen throughout the world. Orion is the brightest and most beautiful of the winter constellations. Some of its stars, including Betelgeuse and Rigel, are among the brightest stars. Credit: Starry Night Software Locating Orion the Hunter Orion is clearly visible in the night sky from November to February. Orion is in the southwest sky if you are in the Northern Hemisphere or the northwestern sky if you are in the Southern Hemisphere. It is best seen between latitudes 85 and -75 degrees. Its right ascension is 5 hours, and its declination is 5 degrees. Alnilam, Mintaka and Alnitak, which form Orion’s belt, are the most prominent stars in the Orion constellation.

Betelgeuse, the second brightest star in Orion, establishes the right shoulder of the hunter. Bellatrix serves as Orion's left shoulder. The Orion Nebula —a formation of dust, hydrogen, helium and other ionized gases rather than a star—is the middle "star" in Orion’s sword, which hangs off of Orion's Belt. The Horsehead Nebula is also nearby. Other stars in the constellation include Hatsya, which establishes the tip of Orion's sword that hangs off the belt, and Meissa, which forms Orion's head. Saiph serves as Orion's right knee. Rigel forms the hunter's left knee. With one exception, all of the main stars in Orion are bright young blue giants or supergiants, ranging in distance from Bellatrix (243 light-years) to Alnilam (1,359 light-years). The Orion Nebula is farther away than any of the naked eye stars at a distance of about 1,600 light-years. One light-year is the distance light travels in a single year, about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion kilometers). The exception is the star Betelgeuse, which is a red giant and one of the largest stars known.

It is also the only star in the sky large enough and close enough to have been imaged as a disk in the Hubble Space Telescope. Observers with a keen eye should be able to see the difference in color between Betelgeuse and all the other stars in Orion. [ Space Photos: Orion Nebula & Other Stunning Views ] The stars Alnilam, Mintaka and Alnitak form Orion’s belt. Credit: Martin Mutti, Astronomical Image Data Archive Mythology There are several versions of the myth of Orion, but one of the more common iterations is that Orion proclaimed himself to be the greatest hunter in the world, much to the dismay of Hera, the wife of Zeus. She had a scorpion kill him, and Zeus put Orion into the sky as consolation. In another version, Orion is blinded for raping Merope, a granddaughter of the god Dionysis. He has to travel East to seek the sun's rays to recover his sight. While the name Orion is steeped in Greek mythology, many cultures have been influenced by the story of this constellation. Orion has also associated with the Egyptian Pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty called Unas.

In Hungary, Orion is known as (magic) Archer (Íjász), or Scyther (Kaszás). Scandinavians refer to "Orion's belt" as Frigg's Distaff. — Kim Ann Zimmermann Constellations ancient and modern grace the skies year round. Let's see what you know about the star patterns that appear overhead every night. Carina Nebula | Constellation Guide Constellation Guide Constellations: A Guide to the Night Sky Carina Nebula by admin The Carina Nebula is a bright, large emission nebula surrounding the star Eta Carinae , located in the southern constellation Carina . It is also sometimes called the Eta Carinae Nebula, the Grand Nebula, or the Great Nebula in Carina. The nebula’s designation in the New General Catalogue is NGC 3372. It is one of the largest diffuse nebulae known, one that contains several open star clusters. The Carina Nebula is home to several notable objects: the Mystic Mountain, the Homunculus Nebula, and the Keyhole Nebula.

The Carina Nebula lies in the Carina-Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way, at a distance between 6,500 and 10,000 light years from Earth. The estimated distance of the nebula is 7,500 light years. NGC 3372 is exceptionally large, about four times the size of the Orion Nebula ( Messier 42 ). It can easily be seen without binoculars even though it is about five times more distant than the famous nebula in Orion constellation . Carina Nebula, image: ESO/T. Preibisch Eta Carinae Nebula is not quite as well known as the Orion Nebula because it lies in the southern sky and can only be observed from equatorial and southern latitudes. The nebula spans about 460 light years in diameter, covering an area of three degrees of the sky. It is one of the largest known star forming regions in the Milky Way. X-ray images of the region reveal that the nebula has also been a site of multiple supernova explosions.

ETA CARINAE Eta Carinae , the central star in the nebula, is a luminous supergiant, about four million times more luminous than the Sun, with 100 to 150 times the Sun’s mass. It is the most massive star that can be observed and studied in great detail thanks to its size and location. Eta Carinae is believed to be only 2 to 3 million years old. The stellar wind inside the nebula surrounding the star blows off a mass equivalent to that of Jupiter every year, which means that Eta Carinae loses 100 billion times more mass than the Sun. The star is currently in its final stages of life and will soon explode as a gigantic supernova or hypernova. This could happen within days or a million years from now, and it will likely result in the devastation of planets and starfields lying within a few thousand light years of the star. Eta Carinae is believed to be part of a binary star system, which it shares with another supergiant. The other star is thought to be between 30 and 60 times more massive than the Sun.

Every 5.5 years, the two massive stars make a closest approach, coming within 2 to 3 astronomical units of each other. As a result, their stellar winds collide and there is a huge outflow of radiation and light. MYSTIC MOUNTAIN The Mystic Mountain is a pillar of gas and dust located inside the Carina Nebula. It was photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope in February 2010, on the 20th anniversary of its launch. The images show a region with a shape resembling that of a mountain top surrounded by clouds. The Mystic Mountain region is three light years in height and contains nascent stars which fire off jets of gas which can be seen streaming from the mountain peaks. The gas pillar is being slowly eroded by the light of the enormously large, massive young stars located above the pillar. This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image captures the chaotic activity atop a pillar of gas and dust, three light-years tall, which is being eaten away by the brilliant light from nearby bright stars. The pillar is also being assaulted from within, as infant stars buried inside it fire off jets of gas that can be seen streaming from towering peaks.

This turbulent cosmic pinnacle lies within a tempestuous stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula, located 7500 light-years away in the southern constellation of Carina. The image celebrates the 20th anniversary of Hubble’s launch and deployment into an orbit around the Earth. Scorching radiation and fast winds (streams of charged particles) from super-hot newborn stars in the nebula are shaping and compressing the pillar, causing new stars to form within it. Streamers of hot ionised gas can be seen flowing off the ridges of the structure, and wispy veils of gas and dust, illuminated by starlight, float around its towering peaks. The denser parts of the pillar are resisting being eroded by radiation. Nestled inside this dense mountain are fledgling stars. Long streamers of gas can be seen shooting in opposite directions from the pedestal at the top of the image. Another pair of jets is visible at another peak near the centre of the image. These jets, (known as HH 901 and HH 902, respectively, are signposts for new star birth and are launched by swirling gas and dust discs around the young stars, which allow material to slowly accrete onto the stellar surfaces.

Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 observed the pillar on 1-2 February 2010. The colours in this composite image correspond to the glow of oxygen (blue), hydrogen and nitrogen (green), and sulphur (red). Image: NASA, ESA, and M. Livio and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team (STScI) HOMUNCULUS NEBULA Although 19th century astronomers did not have telescopes powerful enough to see the 1843 outburst in detail, its effects can be studied today. The huge clouds of matter thrown out a century and a half ago, known as the Homunculus Nebula, have been a regular target for Hubble since its launch in 1990. This image consists of ultraviolet and visible light images from the High Resolution Channel of Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. The field of view is approximately 30 arcseconds across. Image: ESA/Hubble & NASA The Homunculus Nebula is a much smaller region of nebulosity within NGC 3372, directly surrounding the star Eta Carinae . The name of the smaller nebula means Little Man in Latin.

The Homunculus Nebula is believed to have been formed in the 1840s, when a powerful outburst briefly made the massive central star the second brightest star in the sky. The event is known as Nova Carinae 1843, or the Great Eruption. The outburst was also responsible for producing the two lobes the nebula is known for and a large, thin disk, all expanding at an approximate speed of 1 million kilometres per hour. Prior to the outburst, Eta Carinae appeared as any other naked eye star, but then began to brighten and, by 1848, the star’s apparent magnitude reached its peak. The star’s brightness then gradually faded again and, by 1880, Eta Carinae could no longer be seen without binoculars. It is currently at the limit of naked eye visibility, but would appear much brighter if it were not surrounded by clouds of dust. KEYHOLE NEBULA The Keyhole Nebula, within NGC 3372. A mosaic of four April 1999 images by Hubble’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2.

Image: NASA, The Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI) The Keyhole Nebula is a dark nebula about seven light years in diameter. It was named for its keyhole shape, for which it is known. It lies silhouetted against the bright Carina Nebula in the background. The Keyhole Nebula was named by the English mathematician and astronomer John Herschel in the 19th century. It has its own designation in the New General Catalogue, NGC 3324. CARINA NEBULA: FACTS AND LOCATION The Carina Nebula was discovered by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1751-52, who observed the southern constellations from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. Astronomers John Herschel and James Dunlop, who also observed the southern skies, called the nebula the Eta Carinae Nebula or Eta Argus Nebula, referring to the former constellation Argo Navis, representing the ship of Jason and the Argonauts, which was split into several smaller constellations.

Carina constellation represents the keel of the ship, while Vela represents the sails and Puppis constellation marks the stern. Herschel described the object as “The star η Argus, with the Great nebula about it.” This chart shows the location of the Carina Nebula within the constellation of Carina (The Keel). This map shows most of the stars visible to the unaided eye under good conditions and the nebula itself is marked as a green square in a red circle at the left (labelled 3372 for NGC 3372). This nebula is very bright and can be seen well in small telescopes, and faintly without a telescope at all. Image: ESO, IAU and Sky & Telescope The Carina Nebula is home to several exceptionally bright and massive stars, including Eta Carinae and HD 93129A, and multiple O-type stars. It is known to contain at least a dozen stars with a mass at least 50 to 100 times than of the Sun.

NGC 3372 contains eight open clusters, including Collider 228, Trumpler 16 and Trumpler 14. Trumpler 14 is the youngest and most populated cluster in the group. The first generation of newly formed stars in the nebula are believed to have condensed some three million years ago, igniting in the middle of a large hydrogen cloud. Radiation from these young stars shaped a bubble of hot gas, which has kept expanding ever since. The stellar winds and ultraviolet radiation within the region are compressing cold hydrogen, resulting in more new stars being formed inside the nebula. The pillars of dust and gas within the Eta Carinae Nebula will be destroyed by the young stars over the next 100,000 years and all that will remain will be a new open star cluster. Carina Nebula – NGC 3372 Messier 42 Next: M43 The Orion Nebula is one of the most interesting objects in the sky. To the naked eye, it looks like a star in the sword of the constellation Orion , but with binoculars or a telescope, you can see that it is actually a large glowing cloud of material.

This is believed to be a huge star formation region about 1630 light years away. The bright part of the nebula is the glow of many luminous, newborn stars shining on the surrounding gas cloud that they collapsed from. The most important part of the Orion Nebula is the part we can't see: the opaque Orion Molecular Cloud. This is a huge clump of very cold gas that has a total mass of about 2000 times the mass of the Sun. The gas from this cloud slowly collapses due to gravity to form stars. Whenever a bright, new star is formed, its light evaporates the opaque gaseous "womb" it formed from, allowing us to see it. The stars that are being born in the Orion Nebula are part of what astronomers call an "open cluster." When all of the stars are done being born, what will remain is a clump of a few hundred to a thousand stars which are all roughly the same age (give or take a few tens of millions of years!). These stellar siblings are dominated by a few very massive, very very bright stars called the Trapezium.

The Trapezium is made up of just a few stars, but it outshines all the rest of them combined. Astronomers believe that the majority of the glow from the gas in the nebula comes from light from the stars of the Trapezium. Maybe in a few hundred million years, there will be planets like the Earth forming around some of the new stars in the cluster. Orion Nebula - Messier 42 | Constellation Guide Constellation Guide Constellations: A Guide to the Night Sky Orion Nebula – Messier 42 by admin The Orion Nebula is a famous diffuse emission/reflection nebula located in the constellation Orion . It is also known as Messier 42 (M42) or the Great Orion Nebula. Its designation in the New General Catalogue is NGC 1976. The brightest stars in the nebula form an asterism known as the Trapezium Cluster . These young stars are responsible for most of the nebula’s glow. The Orion Nebula is one of the brightest nebulae in the night sky and, lying at a distance of 1,344 light years, it is the nearest region of massive star formation to Earth.

It can be seen without binoculars, and its brightness and proximity make M42 one of the most studied objects in the night sky. The nebulous region of M42 is easily seen through binoculars or a small telescope. The best time of year to observe the nebula is the winter, during the months of December and January, when Orion constellation is high in the sky. Astronomers studying the nebula have learned a lot about the formation of stars and planetary systems from collapsing dust and gas clouds, and they have observed the effects of massive stars photo-ionizing the clouds in the nebula. They have also discovered what they believe are some of the younger protostars ever found. The Orion Nebula spans a degree in the sky, and includes stellar associations, reflection nebulae, dust and gas clouds, and ionized volumes of gas. FACTS AND LOCATION Orion Nebula (Messier 42) – In one of the most detailed astronomical images ever produced, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured an unprecedented look at the Orion Nebula. This turbulent star formation region is one of astronomy’s most dramatic and photogenic celestial objects. More than 3,000 stars of various sizes appear in this image.

Some of them have never been seen in visible light. These stars reside in a dramatic dust-and-gas landscape of plateaus, mountains, and valleys that are reminiscent of the Grand Canyon. The Orion Nebula is a picture book of star formation, from the massive, young stars that are shaping the nebula to the pillars of dense gas that may be the homes of budding stars. Image: NASA, ESA, Hubble The Orion Nebula lies at a distance of 1,344 light years (400 parsecs) from Earth, and can be found in the constellation Orion, to the south of Orion’s Belt , one of the best known asterisms in the night sky. The nebula is located in the sword of Orion and appears as the middle, slightly fuzzy-looking “star” in the sword to the naked eye. Binoculars and small telescopes reveal a cloudy patch of light. Orion’s Sword can be found by locating the three stars of Orion’s Belt , and then following the curved line of stars that appear to be hanging from the Hunter’s belt. These stars mark Orion’s Sword, and the Orion Nebula appears as the middle star in the sword when seen without binoculars.

Messier 42 is about 24 light years across and has an estimated mass approximately 2,000 times that of the Sun. It is the brighest part of a huge star-forming region, and the nearest region of massive star formation to Earth. The nebula is believed to contain more than 1,000 young stars, and about 700 stars that are still in various phases of formation. M42 is part of a much larger nebulous region known as the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, which extends across the Orion constellation and includes a number of famous deep sky objects, among them Barnard’s Loop, the Flame Nebula , the Horsehead Nebula , Messier 43 , and Messier 78 . The Orion Nebula was first discovered by the French astronomer Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc on November 26, 1610. He observed the nebulous region using a refracting telescope. In 1619, the Swiss Jesuit astronomer and mathematician Johann Baptist Cysat observed the nebula and compared it to a bright comet discovered in 1618. This was the first published observation of the Orion Nebula.

The first published sketch was made by the Dutch astronomer and physicist Christiaan Huygens in 1659. The nebula is home to a well-known young open star cluster, the Trapezium Cluster. Charles Messier observed the Orion Nebula on March 4, 1769. He also noted three stars belonging to the Trapezium Cluster. When he published the first edition of his catalogue in 1774, the nebula was listed as the 42nd object. It is still known as Messier 42. The credit for the first ever instance of astrophotography of the nebula – of any nebula – goes to the American doctor, amateur astronomer and astrophotography pioneer Henry Draper, who photographed Messier 42 using an 11-inch refractor to make a 51-minute exposure of the nebula on September 30, 1880. The Orion Nebula was first observed by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1993, and has been a frequent target since.

Orion Nebula – Messier 42 Coordinates: 05h35m17.3s (right ascension), -05°23’28” (declination) Visual magnitude: +4.0 Apparent dimensions: 65×60 arc minutes Radius: 12 light years Designations: Messier 42 (M42), NGC 1976, LBN 974, Sharpless 281 TRAPEZIUM CLUSTER The Trapezium Cluster is a young open cluster located in the Orion Nebula. The brightest four stars in the cluster form an asterism shaped like a trapezium, a quadrilateral with a pair of parallel sides. In a 5-inch telescope, six stars can be observed in good viewing conditions. The Orion Nebula is arguably the finest of all nebulae within the Milky Way visible from the Northern Hemisphere.

With a gaseous repository of 10,000 suns, and illuminated by a cluster of hot young stars, the clouds of Messier 42 — as it is also known — glow with fantastic colours and shapes, giving us a bird’s eye view of one of the greatest star forming nurseries in our part of the Milky Way. Messier 42 is a complex of glowing gas, mostly hydrogen but also helium, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen in decreasing amounts, located 1,500 light-years away. At its very heart, we find the Trapezium, a group of four very hot stars that illuminate the nebula. They are the brightest of an extended cluster of several thousand young stars many of which lie unseen within the opaque gas and dust. Amazingly, whilst the Orion Nebula is easy to identify with the unaided eye, there is apparently no written record of its existence before the 17th century. This image is based on data acquired with the 1.5 m Danish telescope at the ESO La Silla Observatory in Chile, through three filters (B: 60 s, V: 30 s, R: 21 s).

East is at the upper right corner and North is at the lower right. Image: ESO/IDA/Danish 1.5 m/R.Gendler, J.-E. Ovaldsen, and A. Hornstrup The cluster was formed directly out of the Orion Nebula, within the edge of the Orion Molecular Cloud. The Trapezium Cluster was discovered by the Italian mathematician, philosopher, astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei on February 4, 1617. He spotted three of the brightest stars in the cluster, but did not see the nebulosity that surrounds them. The fourth of the main stars was not observed until 1673, and the remaining components were discovered later, totalling eight by 1888, with several of the stars revealed to be binary systems later. The asterism was named the Trapezium Cluster by the Swiss-American astronomer Robert Julius Trumpler in 1931. Of the four main stars in the cluster, two can be resolved into binary systems, making a total of six stars. The stars are quite young and still in an early stage of evolution.

They have an estimated age of a little more than 100,000 years. The brightest star in the cluster, Theta-1 Orionis C, has an apparent visual magnitude of 5.13. Both this star and the second brightest star are classified as eclipsing binary systems. The brightest stars in the cluster are between 15 and 30 times as massive as the Sun and lie within 1.5 light years of each other. They illuminate the surrounding nebulous region. About half the member stars have evaporating circumstellar disks, which means that planetary systems may soon form in their orbits. The Trapezium Cluster is suspected to be a component of the Orion Nebula Cluster, a larger association of about 2,000 stars spanning an area approximately 20 light years in diameter. In 2012, a team of astronomers suggested that the cluster may contain an intermediate black hole, more than 100 times as massive as the Sun, at its centre.

Trapezium Cluster Coordinates: 05h35.4m (right ascension), -05°27′ (declination) Distance: 1,600 light years (490 parsecs) Visual magnitude: 4.0 Apparent dimensions: 47 arc seconds Radius: 10 light years The majestic Orion Nebula imaged with the 2.2m ESO/MPG telescope. Image: ESO Orion Nebula, image: Ljubinko Jovanovic This wide-field view of the Orion Nebula (Messier 42), lying about 1350 light-years from Earth, was taken with the VISTA infrared survey telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. The new telescope’s huge field of view allows the whole nebula and its surroundings to be imaged in a single picture and its infrared vision also means that it can peer deep into the normally hidden dusty regions and reveal the curious antics of the very active young stars buried there. This image was created from images taken through Z, J and Ks filters in the near-infrared part of the spectrum. The exposure times were ten minutes per filter.

The image covers a region of sky about one degree by 1.5 degrees. Image: ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA. Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit Panoramic view of part of Orion Nebula (M42, Messier 42, NGC 1976) by Hubble Space Telescope. Image: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA). Acknowledgment: NASA, ESA, M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team This new image of the Orion Nebula was captured using the Wide Field Imager camera on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory, Chile. This image is a composite of several exposures taken through a total of five different filters. Light that passed through a red filter, as well as light from a filter that shows the glowing hydrogen gas, is coloured red. Light in the yellow–green part of the spectrum is coloured green, blue light is coloured blue and light that passed through an ultraviolet filter has been coloured purple. The exposure times were about 52 minutes through each filter.

Image: ESO and Igor Chekalin M42, image: Ljubinko Jovanovic VISIBLE LIGHT AND INFRARED NASA image of Trapezium Cluster in Orion Nebula, Hubble Space Telescope, Visible (Left) and Infrared (Right). Image: ESA, NASA, STScI This image composite compares infrared and visible views of the famous Orion nebula and its surrounding cloud, an industrious star-making region located near the hunter constellation’s sword. The infrared picture is from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, and the visible image is from the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, headquartered in Tucson, Ariz. In addition to Orion, two other nebulas can be seen in both pictures. The Orion nebula, or M42, is the largest and takes up the lower half of the images; the small nebula to the upper left of Orion is called M43 ; and the medium-sized nebula at the top is NGC 1977. Each nebula is marked by a ring of dust that stands out in the infrared view. These rings make up the walls of cavities that are being excavated by radiation and winds from massive stars.

The visible view of the nebulas shows gas heated by ultraviolet radiation from the massive stars. Above the Orion nebula, where the massive stars have not yet ejected much of the obscuring dust, the visible image appears dark with only a faint glow. In contrast, the infrared view penetrates the dark lanes of dust, revealing bright swirling clouds and numerous developing stars that have shot out jets of gas (green). This is because infrared light can travel through dust, whereas visible light is stopped short by it. The infrared image shows light captured by Spitzer’s infrared array camera. Light with wavelengths of 8 and 5.8 microns (red and orange) comes mainly from dust that has been heated by starlight. Light of 4.5 microns (green) shows hot gas and dust; and light of 3.6 microns (blue) is from starlight. Image: Spitzer: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ T.

Megeath (University of Toledo, Ohio) X-RAY AND INFRARED Right in time for the festive season, this image of the Orion nebula combines NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope infrared light with X-ray light to reveal a huge cloud of high-temperature gas resting in a spectacular nearby star-forming region, shaped somewhat like the silhouette of Santa Claus. An early present for astronomers, the cloud suggests that hot gas from many star-forming regions leaks into the interstellar medium. The Orion nebula is the nearest dense star-forming region to Earth that contains stars much more massive than the Sun. This newly-discovered gas cloud is composed of winds blowing from these high-mass stars that are heated to millions of degrees as they slam into the surrounding gas. “There is one star in particular that dominates the nebula”, says Manuel Gdel, Paul Scherrer Institut, Switzerland, who led the team that discovered the gas. The star in question is theta1 Orionis C, a giant star around 40 times mass of the Sun, with a surface temperature of 40,000C.

Gdel and his colleagues think that the violent collision between the wind from this star and the surrounding dense gas is largely responsible for the newly-discovered hot gas cloud. The high-temperature gas fills a region of the nebula that appears to be a huge cavity in optical and infrared images. The new observations, taken with XMM-Newtons European Photon Imaging Camera (EPIC) camera, suggest that astronomers are seeing only a particular portion of the gas. The X-rays from this portion escape absorption by patches of cold gas covering much of the front of the Orion nebula. The surrounding pattern of absorbing clouds gives the detected gas its Santa Claus shape, with his prominent hat outlined by the northern gas bubble. In its entirety, the hot gas probably fills the whole nebula. Image: AAAS/Science (ESA XMM-Newton and NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope) TRAPEZIUM CLUSTER IN OPTICAL AND INFRARED Two views of the Trapezium cluster in the Orion Nebula, from the Hubble Space Telescope. The image on the left, an optical spectrum image taken with Hubble’s WFPC2 camera, shows a few stars shrouded in glowing gas and dust.

On the right, an image taken with Hubble’s NICMOS infrared camera penetrates the haze to reveal a swarm of stars as well as brown dwarfs.Credits for near-infrared image: NASA; K.L. Luhman (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass.); and G. Schneider, E. Young, G. Rieke, A. Cotera, H. Chen, M. Rieke, R. Thompson (Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz.) Credits for visible-light picture: NASA, C.R. O’Dell and S.K.

Wong (Rice University) VIDEO Orion - The Constellation Home Page The American Association of Amateur Astronomers Serving the Amateur Astronomy Community ONLINE since 1996 The Constellation Home Page Join the AAAA's FREE Online Discussion Group, Hosted by Yahoo's eGroups Service AAAA The American Association of Amateur Astronomers Learn the Constellations Buy it Now or Find Out More The Constellation Orion - The Hunter One of the most easily recognized of all constellations, Orion lies near to the Milky Way, and thus contains many open clusters and some of the best nebulae in the heavens. Led by the bright stars Betelgeuse and Rigel, this constellation holds many fine telescopic and binocular objects, along with some of the most photographed regions of the sky. Its arrival in the night sky in December signals the beginning of the winter observing season, with its crisp, clear nights and fine ï¿½seeingï¿½. So bundle up, make some coffee or hot chocolate, and get out under the stars for some of the finest observing of the year!

M42 - The Great Nebula in Orion One of the finest sights in the entire sky, M42 is easily visible to the naked eye as the ï¿½fuzzyï¿½ star in the middle of Orionï¿½s sword. It appears distinctly nebulous in binoculars or finder scopes, and shows an amazing amount of detail through the telescope. It is fully a degree in extent, with a wealth of fine curling wisps of nebulosity curving out from the brightest region surrounding the four relatively bright stars known as the Trapezium. On good nights with low power, I have even been able to see colors in this object. The region around the Trapezium appears as a cold steel blue color, while the wispy regions further away can appear as a soft ruddy pink. Slightly separated from the main nebulosity is M-43. This nebula is seen as a comma shaped cloud surrounding an eighth magnitude star just north of the Great Nebula. The more time you spend in this area, the more fine detail you can seen. The Trapezium is seen at the core of the Orion Nebula. It appears as a trapezoid, with four bright stars at unequal distances.

A closer look will show six distinct stars, and an even closer look will show more. A bluish nebulosity shines throughout this grouping, and a 3 dimensional appearance can be seen under high magnification. M78 M-78 is another fine area of nebulosity. It is about 6' in diameter, and surrounds two magnitude 10 stars. It is somewhat fan shaped, and appears comet-like at low powers. NGC's 2064, 2067, and 2071 lie in very close proximity to M-78, and are all nebulous regions as well. Other objects to look for in Orion NGC 1973-75-77 Dubbed the "Running Man" nebula by well-known astrophotographer Jason Ware, this is a relatively bright region of nebulosity just north of the M-42 complex. It is large, about 15'x10, and surrounds several relatively bright stars. The "Running Man" is seen as the dark region between the areas of nebulosity, and often shows up in wide angle photographs of the Great Nebula.

It would be observed more often if it weren't located so close to M-42, and greatly deserves more attention. NGC 2022 This is a small, but relatively bright planetary nebula about 20" in diameter. It is slightly brighter at the center, and fades gradually to the edges.. IC 434 - The Horsehead Nebula Orion provides a nearly impossible object to view optically. It has been done, though. The Horsehead Nebula is an object which shows nicely in photographs, but most observers have never seen it visually. It takes an extremely exceptional night of clear, still air and no Moon. It also takes a fairly large aperture telescope and much patience. If you have the opportunity to view this object, take it, but donï¿½t be disappointed if you donï¿½t see it. It is quite a task. The "horsehead" can be distinguished quite easily on the right side of this image, outlined in the red luminosity of the emission nebula. If you wish to view the Horsehead Nebula yourself, you will need a large aperture telescope equipped with a narrow band-pass filter especially designed for viewing emission nebula.

One filter line of note is Lumicon's H-Beta filter. As the name indicates, the filter only lets through the H-Beta emission line of Hydrogen, and is mainly useful on a limited number of objects, like the Horsehead Nebula, the California Nebula, the Coccoon Nebula, and M43. On an 8" to 10" scope, the Horsehead Nebula goes from invisibility to visibility, as does the California Nebula. However, these objects remain fairly faint (especially the Horsehead), and unless you REALLY like looking at them, you can probably forget about buying the H-Beta! Much easier to see is the Flame Nebula, which is the bright area just to the bottom left of the blue star, Zeta Orionis. Article © Copyright Rick Raasch Photos © Copyright Edward P. Flaspoehler, Jr.

Messier Objects in Orion The Splendor of the Orion Nebula (Photos) The Splendor of the Orion Nebula (Photos) By SPACE.com Staff | November 14, 2013 05:27pm ET MORE Orion Nebula by Brian Davis Credit: Brian Davis Brian Davis took this photo of the Orion Nebula from a driveway in the suburbs of Sumter, S.C., over 3.5 hours on Jan. 1, 2012 using a QSI 583wsg camera, Stellarvue SVR105 4" APO Refractor telescope, mounted on a Celestron CGE. Davis sent the image in to SPACE.com on Oct. 8. The entire region of the sword of Orion can be seen in the photo. The Running Man Nebula, or NGC 1977, is visible to the left of the image. [ Read the Story Behind This Photo Here ] Orion Nebula NGC 1980 Credit: © CFHT/Coelum (J.-C. Cuillandre & G.

Anselmi) Once thought to be part of the Orion nebula, the star cluster NGC 1980 is actually a separate entity, scientists say. It appears around the brightest star seen at the bottom of this image, iota Ori. The disks around the star are the result of internal light reflection in the camera optics. Outskirts of the Orion Nebula Credit: Gemini Observatory/AURA This image, obtained during the late commissioning phase of the GeMS adaptive optics system, with the Gemini South AO Imager (GSAOI) on the night of December 28, 2012, reveals exquisite details in the outskirts of the Orion Nebula. Detailed Views of the Orion Bullet Region Credit: Gemini Observatory/AURA In each image pair, left is the Altair 2007 image and right is the new 2012 GeMS image. This close-up view emphasizes the gain realized by MCAO and GeMS compared to normal AO (Altair). The Splendor of Orion: A Star Factory Unveiled Credit: NASA, ESA, M.

Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team This new Hubble image of the Orion Nebula shows dense pillars of gas and dust that may be the homes of fledgling stars, and hot, young, massive stars that have emerged from their cocoons and are shaping the nebula with powerful ultraviolet light. SOFIA Image of Orion Nebula Credit: SOFIA image: James De Buizer/NASA/DLR/USRA/DSI/FORCAST; Spitzer image: NASA/JPL This image compares two infrared pictures of the heart of the Orion nebula captured by the FORCAST camera on the SOFIA airborne observatory's telescope with a wider image of the same area from NASA's Spitzer space telescope. Cosmic Bullets Pierce Space Cloud Credit: Gemini Observatory This composite image at infrared wavelengths shows the Orion nebula "bullets" as blue features and represents the light emitted by hot iron gas. The light from the wakes, shown in orange, is from excited hydrogen gas.

Each bullet is about ten times the size of Pluto's orbit around the Sun and travels through the clouds at up to 250 miles (400 kilometers) per second-or about a thousand times faster than the speed of sound. Orion Nebula Credit: ESO and Igor Chekalin This new image of the Orion Nebula was captured using the Wide Field Imager camera on the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. Famous Orion Nebula Closer Than Thought Credit: Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF Trigonometric Parallax method determines distance to star by measuring its slight shift in apparent position as seen from opposite ends of Earth's orbit. Twin Stars Born 500,000 Years Apart Credit: NASA-JPL-STScI/David James. The two identical twin stars (inset) called Par 1802 appear as a single point of light, because they are so close to each other in the Orion Nebula (background). New Close-up Shows Binary Stars in Orion’s Heart Left: Zooming into the center of the Orion star-forming region with the four bright Trapezium stars (Theta1 Orionis A-D).

The dominant star is Theta1 Orionis C, which was imaged with unprecedented resolution with the VLT interferometer (lower right). Right: The orbit of the binary system (grey line). The size of the orbit of Jupiter around our sun is shown for comparison. Collage: MPIfR (Stefan Kraus), ESO, NASA,HST. 'Space Jellyfish' and Cosmic Blobs Seen by Hubble Telescope Credit: NASA/ESA and L. Ricci (ESO) This new atlas features 30 proplyds, or protoplanetary discs, that were recently discovered in the majestic Orion Nebula using the Hubble Space Telescope. New Image Penetrates Heart of Orion Nebula Credit: ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA. Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit This wide-field view of the Orion Nebula (Messier 42), lying about 1350 light-years from Earth, was taken with the VISTA infrared survey telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile.

The new telescope’s huge field of view allows the whole nebula and its surroundings to be imaged in a single picture and its infrared vision also means that it can peer deep into the normally hidden dusty regions and reveal the curious antics of the very active young stars buried there. Hot New Stars Take Center Stage in Cosmic Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech A colony of hot, young stars is stirring up the cosmic scene in this new picture from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope released on April 1, 2010. Full story . Star-Formation Details Seen in New Images Credit: ESA/LFI & HFI Consortia An active star-formation region in the Orion nebula, as seen by Planck. This image covers a region of 13x13 degrees. It is a three-color combination constructed from three of Planck's nine frequency channels: 30, 353 and 857 GHz. Young Stars Blamed for Space Cloud Ripples Credit: NASA-JPL & Caltech, ESO-VISTA [ Full Story ] Top: near-infrared image of the Orion nebula. The massive stars are in the bright region.

Bottom: Zoom on the region of the waves shown at mid-infrared (green), and radio wavelengths (red). The mid-infrared component shows the emission of warm small dust particles, while the radio emission comes from the cold gas. Each inset corresponds to a different velocity of the gas, observed with the IRAM 30m radio-telescope. Orion Knows How to Turn on the FIreworks! Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the Orion Nebula shows the spectacular region around an object known as Herbig-Haro 502, a very small part of the vast stellar nursery. The glow of the nebula fills the image and, just left of center, a star embedded in a pinkish glow can be also seen. This object, Herbig-Haro 502, is an example of a very young star surrounded by the cloud of gas from which it formed. Orion, Brightest Winter Constellation Credit: Starry Night Software Orion is the brightest and most beautiful of the winter constellations. Some of its stars, including Betelgeuse and Rigel, are among the brightest stars.

Orion from Viking View Credit: P-M Hedén/TWAN Skywatcher Per-Magnus Heden wondered if the Vikings gazed at the same starry sky, which includes the constellation Orion at bottom, when he took this photo in Feb. 2011. Orion Unveiled: Spitzer Telescope Spies Nebula’s Infrared Secrets Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/S.T. Megeaty (Univ. of Toledo,OH). This infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the Orion nebula, the closest massive star-making factory to Earth. Orion Nebula Seen by Herschel and Spitzer Credit: ESA/PACS/NASA/JPL-Caltech/IRAM This new view of the Orion Nebula shows embryonic stars within extensive gas and dust clouds. Combining far-infrared observations from the Herschel Space Observatory and mid-infrared observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, the image shows newly forming stars surrounded by remnant gas and dust in the form of discs and larger envelopes. Image released Feb.

29, 2012 previous | next Orion Nebula by Brian Davis Credit: Brian Davis Brian Davis took this photo of the Orion Nebula from a driveway in the suburbs of Sumter, S.C., over 3.5 hours on Jan. 1, 2012 using a QSI 583wsg camera, Stellarvue SVR105 4" APO Refractor telescope, mounted on a Celestron CGE. Davis sent the image in to SPACE.com on Oct. 8. The entire region of the sword of Orion can be seen in the photo. The Running Man Nebula, or NGC 1977, is visible to the left of the image. [ Read the Story Behind This Photo Here ] Orion Nebula NGC 1980 Credit: © CFHT/Coelum (J.-C. Cuillandre & G. Anselmi) Once thought to be part of the Orion nebula, the star cluster NGC 1980 is actually a separate entity, scientists say. It appears around the brightest star seen at the bottom of this image, iota Ori.

The disks around the star are the result of internal light reflection in the camera optics. Outskirts of the Orion Nebula Credit: Gemini Observatory/AURA This image, obtained during the late commissioning phase of the GeMS adaptive optics system, with the Gemini South AO Imager (GSAOI) on the night of December 28, 2012, reveals exquisite details in the outskirts of the Orion Nebula. Detailed Views of the Orion Bullet Region Credit: Gemini Observatory/AURA In each image pair, left is the Altair 2007 image and right is the new 2012 GeMS image. This close-up view emphasizes the gain realized by MCAO and GeMS compared to normal AO (Altair). The Splendor of Orion: A Star Factory Unveiled Credit: NASA, ESA, M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team This new Hubble image of the Orion Nebula shows dense pillars of gas and dust that may be the homes of fledgling stars, and hot, young, massive stars that have emerged from their cocoons and are shaping the nebula with powerful ultraviolet light.

SOFIA Image of Orion Nebula Credit: SOFIA image: James De Buizer/NASA/DLR/USRA/DSI/FORCAST; Spitzer image: NASA/JPL This image compares two infrared pictures of the heart of the Orion nebula captured by the FORCAST camera on the SOFIA airborne observatory's telescope with a wider image of the same area from NASA's Spitzer space telescope. Cosmic Bullets Pierce Space Cloud Credit: Gemini Observatory This composite image at infrared wavelengths shows the Orion nebula "bullets" as blue features and represents the light emitted by hot iron gas. The light from the wakes, shown in orange, is from excited hydrogen gas. Each bullet is about ten times the size of Pluto's orbit around the Sun and travels through the clouds at up to 250 miles (400 kilometers) per second-or about a thousand times faster than the speed of sound. Orion Nebula Credit: ESO and Igor Chekalin This new image of the Orion Nebula was captured using the Wide Field Imager camera on the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile.

Famous Orion Nebula Closer Than Thought Credit: Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF Trigonometric Parallax method determines distance to star by measuring its slight shift in apparent position as seen from opposite ends of Earth's orbit. Twin Stars Born 500,000 Years Apart Credit: NASA-JPL-STScI/David James. The two identical twin stars (inset) called Par 1802 appear as a single point of light, because they are so close to each other in the Orion Nebula (background). New Close-up Shows Binary Stars in Orion’s Heart Left: Zooming into the center of the Orion star-forming region with the four bright Trapezium stars (Theta1 Orionis A-D). The dominant star is Theta1 Orionis C, which was imaged with unprecedented resolution with the VLT interferometer (lower right). Right: The orbit of the binary system (grey line). The size of the orbit of Jupiter around our sun is shown for comparison. Collage: MPIfR (Stefan Kraus), ESO, NASA,HST. 'Space Jellyfish' and Cosmic Blobs Seen by Hubble Telescope Credit: NASA/ESA and L.

Ricci (ESO) This new atlas features 30 proplyds, or protoplanetary discs, that were recently discovered in the majestic Orion Nebula using the Hubble Space Telescope. New Image Penetrates Heart of Orion Nebula Credit: ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA. Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit This wide-field view of the Orion Nebula (Messier 42), lying about 1350 light-years from Earth, was taken with the VISTA infrared survey telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. The new telescope’s huge field of view allows the whole nebula and its surroundings to be imaged in a single picture and its infrared vision also means that it can peer deep into the normally hidden dusty regions and reveal the curious antics of the very active young stars buried there. Hot New Stars Take Center Stage in Cosmic Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech A colony of hot, young stars is stirring up the cosmic scene in this new picture from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope released on April 1, 2010. Full story .

Star-Formation Details Seen in New Images Credit: ESA/LFI & HFI Consortia An active star-formation region in the Orion nebula, as seen by Planck. This image covers a region of 13x13 degrees. It is a three-color combination constructed from three of Planck's nine frequency channels: 30, 353 and 857 GHz. Young Stars Blamed for Space Cloud Ripples Credit: NASA-JPL & Caltech, ESO-VISTA [ Full Story ] Top: near-infrared image of the Orion nebula. The massive stars are in the bright region. Bottom: Zoom on the region of the waves shown at mid-infrared (green), and radio wavelengths (red). The mid-infrared component shows the emission of warm small dust particles, while the radio emission comes from the cold gas. Each inset corresponds to a different velocity of the gas, observed with the IRAM 30m radio-telescope. Orion Knows How to Turn on the FIreworks!

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the Orion Nebula shows the spectacular region around an object known as Herbig-Haro 502, a very small part of the vast stellar nursery. The glow of the nebula fills the image and, just left of center, a star embedded in a pinkish glow can be also seen. This object, Herbig-Haro 502, is an example of a very young star surrounded by the cloud of gas from which it formed. Orion, Brightest Winter Constellation Credit: Starry Night Software Orion is the brightest and most beautiful of the winter constellations. Some of its stars, including Betelgeuse and Rigel, are among the brightest stars. Orion from Viking View Credit: P-M Hedén/TWAN Skywatcher Per-Magnus Heden wondered if the Vikings gazed at the same starry sky, which includes the constellation Orion at bottom, when he took this photo in Feb. 2011. Orion Unveiled: Spitzer Telescope Spies Nebula’s Infrared Secrets Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/S.T. Megeaty (Univ. of Toledo,OH).

This infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the Orion nebula, the closest massive star-making factory to Earth. Orion Nebula Seen by Herschel and Spitzer Credit: ESA/PACS/NASA/JPL-Caltech/IRAM This new view of the Orion Nebula shows embryonic stars within extensive gas and dust clouds. Combining far-infrared observations from the Herschel Space Observatory and mid-infrared observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, the image shows newly forming stars surrounded by remnant gas and dust in the form of discs and larger envelopes. Image released Feb. 29, 2012 Stars and Constellations Argo Navis Written by Pam Eastlick of the University of Guam. Low on the southern horizon lies the crown jewel of spring equatorial skies. There are now six constellations among these stars. They are Puppis the Poop, Vela the Sails, Pyxis the Compass, Carina the Keel, Volans the Flying Fish and Columba the Dove. These six constellations are the dismembered parts of a much larger constellation outlined by the ancient Greeks. They called it the Great Ship Argo Navis.

Because of a phenomenon called precession, more southern stars were visible to the ancient sailors of the Mediterranean than are visible today. Low on their horizon, in spring skies, there appeared the apparition of a great ship. This ship sailed ever westward skimming along the southern horizon. The ancient Greeks said it was Argo Navis, the ship sailed by Jason and his Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece. The entire ship is not visible from the mainland U.S. You must travel south of 15 degrees North to see all of Carina the Keel and Volans the Flying Fish. The other four parts are visible in their entirety from the mainland U.S. If you are lucky enough to be able to see the whole ship, the easiest way to find it is to locate Canis Major, the Big Dog, Orion's hunting companion. The triangle of stars that form the dog's hind legs is your jumping-off point. There are two stars to the east and slightly north of the triangle. They are the top of the ship's high stern. The ship then sweeps down toward the southern horizon, virtually filling the southern sky with stars in the spring. The great ship is traditionally shown without a prow.

This strange state of affairs is usually explained by the ship having lost its prow in the Clashing Rocks. However, the author H.A. Rey finds a perfectly good prow and figure-head in the ship's eastern end in his delightful and informative book "The Stars". Puppis the Poop is the high stern of the Great Ship Argo Navis. The Milky Way runs right through the middle of this constellation, and Puppis contains many double and triple stars, 25 open clusters and several star-forming regions as well as condensations of stars in the Milky Way main body. Puppis also contains Puppis A, the remnant of a supernova that exploded about 4,000 years ago. At right angles to the deck of the Great Ship Argo Navis there is a faint line of stars. This is Pyxis the Ship's Compass. Since no compass is a straight line, there are those who call Pyxis the Ship's Tiller. It was named by La Caille in the 1700's. He considered it separate from the ship. The Milky Way runs through the western edge of Pyxis and there are several open clusters in the constellation.

Pyxis also contains T Pyxidis the most active of all known recurring novae. T Pyxidis brightens roughly every twenty years from its normal 14th magnitude to magnitude 6. Since the last maxima was in 1967, we're overdue for another. Above the deck of the Great Ship Argo Navis is a ragged circle of stars. This is Vela the Ship's Sail, fully opened to catch the wind. Although many references call this constellation Vela the Sails, there appears to be only one sail. The Milky Way runs through Vela from northwest to southeast and Vela contains what appears to be the only complete break in the glowing band of light. This is called the Great Rift and it is caused by dark nebulae composed of dust and cold gas. Vela also contains many double and triple stars, several small star clusters and one of the most famous supernova remnants in the sky. The Vela supernova remnant, a large wispy filamentous nebula is all that remains of a star that blew itself into rather spectacular pieces about 12,000 years ago. It is as wide as ten full moons.

Vela also contains part of the Gum Nebula, the largest nebula in the sky. The Gum Nebula has a diameter of about 30 degrees. There is speculation that the Gum Nebula glows because of the supernova explosion that produced the Vela supernova remnant. Carina the Keel is the bottom of the Great Ship Argo Navis, and it can be seen in its entirety only from south of 15 degrees north. The Milky Way flows though the entire constellation and the whole area is full of many astounding deep sky objects. Carina also contains Canopus, the second brightest star in the sky. Canopus is not visible from most of the mainland U.S. and it reaches its highest point above the horizon in early evening skies in March. Canopus is the only star named for a real person (if you don't count Rotanev and Sualocin in Delphinus the Dolphin). He was the pilot of the Greek fleet of King Menelaus, and he sailed the ships to the destruction of Troy. Canopus is a blue-white super giant and its estimated distance is from 74 to 300 light years depending on which source you consult.

Obviously, some distance measuring still needs to be done on southern hemisphere stars! Carina also contains Eta Carinae. A century ago, Eta Carinae abruptly brightened to an apparent magnitude of -0.8 and was, briefly, the second brightest star in the sky. The star is now surrounded by a glowing nebula that makes viewing difficult but Eta Carinae appears to be one of the largest stars we know about, perhaps larger than the orbit of Saturn. Astronomers feel that Eta Carinae is very unstable and may soon become a supernova. Perhaps we'll see Eta Carinae become the brightest star in the sky in our lifetimes. Eta Carinae is associated with the diffuse nebula NGC 3372. NGC 3372 is about 300 light years across, over twenty times the Great Nebula in Orion. At 9,000 light years away it's over six times more distant than Orion's nebula. Perhaps someday, the Hubble Space Telescope will turn its cameras on this awesome star forming region.

Carina also contains NGC 2516, a beautiful globular cluster, best in binoculars and NGC 2808, a naked-eye globular cluster. The prow of the ship contains four stars that are often called the False Cross. From Guam's latitude (13 degrees North) these stars look more like a house roof viewed in perspective. The real Southern Cross is immediately to the east of Carina the Keel. There are two animals associated with the Great Ship Argo Navis. One is Columba the Dove, forever leading the way westward for the ship. Columba can be viewed as either sitting on the stern of the ship or flying before it. Columba is easy to find, it lies just below Lepus the Hare, who in turn is lying at the feet of Orion the Hunter. One of the stars just above the dove's head is Mu Columbae and it is one of three "runaway" stars. These stars (the others are AE Aurigae and 53 Arietis) are all fleeing the area of Orion's belt at incredible speeds. Mu Columbae is travelling at 72 miles per second!

Astronomers think these three stars were scattered from a common point by a supernova explosion in a multiple star system. Our sun is heading away from Columba as fast as it can go. Columba contains the "solar antapex" which is the opposite of the solar apex, which is the direction the sun is headed. Right now, we seem to be journeying toward the constellation Hercules. The Great Ship Argo Navis also has another animal associated with it. This is Volans, the Flying Fish. Volans looks more like a kite headed for the ground (the way most of my kites go!), here on Guam than a sleek and slim flying fish. The kite's center contains NGC 2442 a rather lovely face-on spiral galaxy, but since Volans is too far south to contain any of the Milky Way, it doesn't have too many deep space objects. Volans was invented by Pieter Dirksz Keyser and Frederick de Houtman in the late 1500's. The great ship Argo Navis has now been officially divided into four constellations.

They are Puppis the Poop or stern of the ship, Vela the Sails (even though there only appears to be one); Pyxis the Ship's Compass (which more closely resembles a tiller); and Carina the Keel. The animals Columba the Dove and Volans the Flying Fish are also associated with this magnificent star group. If you are lucky enough to see it in its entirety, find a dark clear sky and an unobstructed view to the south and watch the Great Ship Argo Navis glide silently on its endless voyage across the sky. After you have found the great ship and watched its silent sailing, turn your attention to that bright star low on the keel. That's Canopus the second brightest star in the sky. Here on Guam we enjoy skies that are virtually free of air pollution and relatively free of light pollution but no matter what your location or latitude, the stars are still out there. Turn off the T.V. tonight or tomorrow night and go outside to enjoy the evening's entertainment of your ancestors. Look up tonight, the universe awaits you!

Orion Nebula where new stars are born | Clusters Nebulae Galaxies | EarthSky Orion Nebula where new stars are born By Bruce McClure in Clusters Nebulae Galaxies | Space | February 9, 2016 On some moonless night, look for the Orion Nebula below Orion’s Belt. Your eye sees it as a tiny, hazy spot. But it’s a vast region of star formation. The Orion Nebula. Image via NASA/ESA Many people are familiar with Orion, the most noticeable of all constellations. The three stars of Orion’s Belt jump out at you midway between Orion’s two brightest stars, Betelgeuse and Rigel , which are two of the brightest stars in the sky. Once you find the Belt stars, you can also locate the Orion Nebula, otherwise known as M42, a stellar nursery where new stars are being born. Follow the links below to learn more about the Orion Nebula. What science says about the Orion Nebula. View larger. | Three medium-bright stars in a short, straight row represent Orion’s Belt. A curved line of stars extending from the Belt represents Orion’s Sword.

The Orion Nebula lies about midway down in the Sword of Orion. Photo by EarthSky Facebook friend Marian McGaffney. How to locate the Orion Nebula. If you want to find this famous nebula, first you have to locate the constellation Orion. Fortunately, that’s easy, if you’re looking at the right time of year. The Northern Hemisphere winter months (Southern Hemisphere summer months) are the perfect time to come to know Orion. The constellation is noticeable for three medium-bright stars in a short, straight row. These stars represent Orion’s Belt. If you look closely, you’ll notice a curved line of stars “hanging” from the three Belt stars. These stars represent Orion’s Sword. Look for the Orion Nebula about midway down in the Sword of Orion. As a general rule, the higher the constellation Orion is in the sky, the easier it is to see the Orion Nebula. Orion is due south and highest in the sky around midnight in middle December. The stars return to the same place in the sky some 4 minutes earlier each night, or 2 hours earlier each month. So look for Orion to be highest up around 10 p.m. in mid-January and 8 p.m.

in mid-February. Another time people notice Orion is around the months of August and September, when this constellation appears in the east before dawn. Most nebulae – clouds of interstellar gas and dust – are difficult if not impossible to see with the unaided eye or even binoculars. But the Orion Nebula is in a class nearly all by itself. It’s visible to the unaided eye on a dark, moonless night. To me, it looks like a star encased in a globe of luminescent fog. The dark-sky aficionado Stephen James O’Meara described it as: … angel’s breath against a frosted sky. In a dark country sky, observe the Orion Nebula for yourself to see what it looks like. A backyard telescope, or even binoculars do wonders to showcase one of the greatest celestial treasures in the winter sky. Orion Nebula captured on February 5, 2016 by Scott MacNeill at Frosty Drew Observatory in Charlestown, Rhode Island. Scott said this image is a composite of 25 shots. Thanks, Scott! What science says about the Orion Nebula.

According to modern astronomers, the Orion Nebula is an enormous cloud of gas and dust, one of many in our Milky Way galaxy. It lies roughly 1,300 light-years from Earth. At some 30 to 40 light-years in diameter, this great big nebulous cocoon is giving birth to perhaps a thousand stars. A young open star cluster, whose stars were born at the same time from a portion of the nebula and are still loosely bound by gravity, can be seen within the nebula. It is sometimes called the Orion Nebula Star Cluster. In 2012, an international team of astronomers suggested this cluster in the Orion Nebula might have a black hole at its heart . The four brightest stars in the Orion Nebula can be seen through amateur astronomers’ telescopes and are affectionately known as The Trapezium. The light of the young, hot Trapezium stars illuminate the Orion Nebula. These stars are only a million or so years old – mere babes in the lifetime of a star. But most of the stars in this emerging cluster are veiled behind the Orion Nebula itself, the great stellar nursery in Orion’s Sword.

Orion Nebula’s position is Right Ascension: 5h 35.4m; Declination: 5o 27′ south National Optical Astronomy Observatory: M42, Orion National Optical Astronomy Observatory About this image The Orion Nebula (M42/M43, NGC1976/1982) This picture shows the great nebula in the constellation of Orion the Hunter. On a good clear night, from a dark site well away from the lights of modern civilization, this glowing cloud of gas and dust can be seen with the naked eye as a fuzzy patch surrounding the star Theta Orionis in the Hunter's Sword, below Orion's belt. It is probably the most spectacular of all the objects cataloged by Charles Messier and now called by their `M' numbers. M42 had been known since the beginnings of recorded astronomy as a star, but it is so outstanding that it was first noted as an extended nebula in 1610, only a year after Galileo's first use of the telescope. Detailed descriptions started appearing later in the seventeenth century, and it has been a popular target for anyone with a telescope ever since.

So many details are visible in even a small telescope that M42 will more than repay the observer who makes it a frequent target, and who will find that it is hard to make a realistic sketch that can capture all of the finer features. So outstanding is this nebula that it has two numbers. M43/NGC1982 is the separated portion to the north-east (top left), surrounding an irregular variable star. Although Messier stopped at only two, other parts of the nebula in this region have received further NGC numbers. M42 is our closest example of an HII region, being composed mainly of ionized hydrogen which gives off the red glow so dominant in every picture of the nebula. Deep photographs such as this one show that it is nearly a degree across, larger than the full Moon (although the Moon is so bright that it looks much larger). The energy to keep the nebula glowing comes from the very hot young stars in a formation called the Trapezium, embedded in the brightest part of the nebula and not visible in this photograph. The nebula and the brighter stars are very young indeed by astronomical standards, at about 30000 years.

Compare this to our own Sun, which is considered to be a middle-aged star at over four billion years! M42 probably contains several hundred stars younger than a million years, still bursting with the energy of youth. Stars are still being born in a dense cloud behind the nebula, but they are hidden from our view by a concentration of dust which reduces their light to only a million-millionth of its original intensity. Fortunately, astronomers have developed special cameras and other detectors which are sensitive to infra-red radiation, more popularly known as heat, which penetrates the dust and reveals to us this stellar nursery. Although M42 is mostly hydrogen, in both neutral and ionized states, with a fair quantity of dust, it does contain significant amounts of other elements, especially oxygen. The green glow of doubly-ionized oxygen is strongest near the intense ultraviolet starlight at the middle of the nebula. To the north-east (the upper left in this picture) is a feature called the Dark Bay, which is a thick cloud of neutral gas which has not yet been ionized. Location: 05 hrs 35.4 min, -05 deg. 27 min (2000).

Distance: nearly 500 parsecs (1600 light-years). Size: about 66 by 60 arc minutes. Mass: about 300 solar masses. Magnitude: 4.0. Power source: O and B stars. Photograph: Bill Schoening, KPNO 4m telescope, October 1st 1973. Original Ektachrome color transparency. Minimum credit line: Bill Schoening/NOAO/AURA/NSF Downloadable versions:

Question: In which constellation is the Great Nebula?
Answer: Orion