View Observations | Add Observations
Help | Discussion | Acknowledgements
M42 (Orion Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: Scott Brady (e-mail: scottb.esc@gmail.com)
Instrument: 114-mm equatorial reflector Location: Queen Creek, AZ, USA
Transparency: excellent Seeing: good
Time: Mon Nov 2 05:30:00 2009 UT Obs. no.: 1836
This was my first observation of this nebula, and was made from my front yard. With my 114mm reflector I was able to see four faint stars that formed a diamond pattern. It took several minutes of observation before I was able to distinguish all four stars. This pattern was surrounded by a very faint haze that appeared to be a grayish color. This was an amazing sight to see, and I look forward to viewing this again with less moonlight.
M42 (Orion Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: Brandon (e-mail: bdavison2@mail.csuchico.edu)
Instrument: 13.1-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Red Bluff, California, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Sun Nov 30 04:43:00 2008 UT Obs. no.: 1805
I saw an object move through the Orion Nebula at 10:43pm November 29, 2008. Didn't look like a satellite, but was on a consistantly straight path to the the lower left (i.e 8 o'clockish). Any ideas?
Satellite (Satellite, est. mag -5, est. to be in Orion)
Observer: Mark D. Schneider (e-mail: markd_s@yahoo.com)
Instrument: naked eye Location: Garden Grove, California, United States of America
Light pollution: light Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Mon Apr 14 03:48:00 2008 UT Obs. no.: 1775
The ISS made yet another trek through the Western sky (from NW to the South) and passed Aldebaran before entering the Umbra near Sirius.
Satellite (Satellite, est. to be in Orion)
Observer: Mark D. Schneider (e-mail: markd_s@yahoo.com)
Instrument: naked eye Location: Garden Grove, California, United States of America
Light pollution: light Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Tue Jan 29 02:20:00 2008 UT Obs. no.: 1756
yet another ISS Passage from the South to the East before entering the Umbra.
M42 (Orion Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: fair Seeing: fair
Time: Wed Jan 23 23:15:00 2008 UT Obs. no.: 1755
This evening I observed The Orion Nebula with my 127mm MAK. I was not able to see as much detail tonight compared to other nights. However the grey green color of M42 was still obvious. The four stars of the Trapezium split very well. Actually the Orion Nebula extends out to were the belt stars of Orion are located. There the nebulousity takes on a bluish tinge because the three belt stars are all blue stars. Anyone with a telescope even with low power can cee the color differences.
M42 (Orion Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com, web: http://home.mindspring.com/~jcaggiano/)
Instrument: 10-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: none Transparency: excellent Seeing: poor
Time: Tue Oct 2 10:15:00 2007 UT Obs. no.: 1715
Woke up very early this morning to what I thought would have been perfect seeing conditions. A very dark sky and very crisp air about an hour before sunrise. Orion, the last quarter moon and Mars were directly overhead. Venus blazed in the East light a beacon. I guessed Venus to be mag -4.0 or thereabout. My (first) target was M42. This was my first viewing with the new telescope. It was exceptional. It completely blew away any previous view through my 6" newt. The nebula had to be 3 times larger than I had ever seen it, not due to pumping up the magnification but instead because of so much more of the nebula that was visible. The long wisps of cloud along it's major axis were thin yet very well defined through binoviewers. Oddly, the view was not any better using a nebula filter. Since I had to get ready for work, I did not allow the scope to cool down which may account for the less than satisfactory views of the moon and Mars. Alot of ghosting and unfocused views no matter how I much I tried in vain to achieve good focus. All seems to be collimated so my only guess is choppy atmosphere or no ample cool down time.
M42 (Orion Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: fair Seeing: fair
Time: Tue Feb 20 00:00:00 2007 UT Obs. no.: 1624
This evening, my brother Anthony and I observed several objects during a one hour period in 19 degree weather. The first thing we looked at was a beautiful pairing of the moon and Venus in the western sky. The earthshine was very bright and we could see some mares on the darkside of the moon. Saber's Beads were very obvious and this was my brother's first observation of them. They can be seen on the lower cusp of a crescent moon one or two days around full moon. The long period variable star Mira is currenly at 2nd magnitude in its cycle. When it is this bright, the star star appears to be orange in color. As Mira begins to fade, it will begin to look redder in color. We then began to switch our attention to Orion Nebula. Both M42 and M43 showed plenty of detail and exibited a pale green color. We then swithed to the belt stars were the nebulosity had a bluish tinge do to the blue color of the belt stars. The belt star Alnitak is a double star that was easilly split. We then went to Rigel were its faint companion was rather difficult to split. Its faint compaion was very close to Rigel. We swithed to Sirius in order to observe it with my Star Spectroscope. Its two hydrogen lines showed easily and this means Sirius is a healthy star. Next it was on to Saturn where I was able to show my brother his first view of the Seeliger effect which shows the rings of saturn in front of Saturn's face being brighter than usual because Saturn is at opposition. Saturn's moon Titan had a yellow orange glow to it because of its hazy atmosphere. Next we went to Regulus to split it and its companion. Regulus is a very wide double that even a small scope can easilly split. Finally I saved the best for last. Tonight was such a transparant galaxy night my brother and I decided to try for the small satellite galaxy Leo 1 which is located right next to Regulus. We found it almost instantly. It looked like a small oval shaped smudge. It looked about four Regulus' long and about two Regulus' wide. I thus finished my big day night double header of astronomy. During the day I saw no sunspots on the sun.
Other (Other, est. to be in Orion)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 50-mm binoculars Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: fair Seeing: fair
Time: Sun Jan 7 02:30:00 2007 UT Obs. no.: 1608
Last night, after I returned home from the hockey game, I did a quick observation of Mel 65, 69, and 70, with my 10X50 binoculars. Mel 65 is a large loose star cluster above Orion. The cluster is so large, it does not fit into one binocular field. Mel 69 is actually the head of Orion and it is a nice cluster to view. Mel 70 is is a loose cluster that surrounds the three belt stars of Orion. Any pair of binoculars will reveal these star clusters, even in moonlight.
Other (Other, est. to be in Orion)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: fair Seeing: fair
Time: Tue Dec 12 02:00:00 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1597
This evening, I observed The Witch Head Nebula with my 127mm MAK. In photographs, the nebula looks just like a witch head. However, to glimpse it with a telescope, I had to aim the scope at the star Rigel. When you do this, you can see some blue nebulosity around Rigel. That is about all you can see of the Witch Head Nebula. Still, it's worth a peak.
Other (Other, est. mag .3, est. to be in Orion)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: light Transparency: fair Seeing: fair
Time: Sat Dec 9 02:00:00 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1593
My favorite star to study is Betelgeuse located in Orion. I have been estimating Betelgeuse's magnitude every clear night because it is a variable star. Using Aldebaran and Rigel as guide stars, I have estimated Betelgeuse's magnitude to range from .3 magnitude at its brightest to .7 magnitude at its dimmest. I also noticed Betelgeuse's magnitude changes from night to night. Another way I study Betelgeuse is by attaching my Star Spectroscope to my 127mm MAK. I compared Betelgeuse to another old star, Aldebaran to see which star has more spectral lines. Betelgeuse has five spectral lines vs Aldebaran's four spectral lines. This shows Betelgeuse as being both older and cooler in temperature than Aldeberan. To watch Betelgeuse's magnitude become brighter or dimmer from night to night all you have to do is compare its brightness with Aldebaran and Rigel with your own naked eyes. Light pollution will not interfere with your observations.
M42 (Orion Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: fair Seeing: good
Time: Tue Nov 21 04:00:00 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1584
This evening, I observed the nebulosity of the constellation of Orion with my 127mm MAK and 12mm Televue Eyepiece. The Orion Nebula, M42 and M43 had a drab green color to it. There looked to be both tendrils and dustlanes in the nebula. The nebula does extend well beyond M42. An example is the belt stars of Orion in which each belt star is embedded in blue nebulosity. The nebula in that area is colored blue because the belt stars are so blue. Another nebula, NGC 1973 is just above the Orion Nebula and is an impressive nebula in its own right. In reality, NGC 1973 is really an extention of the Orion Nebula. Below M42, there is an open cluster in which some of the brighter members also seemed to have a little nebulosity. Finally, there is an impressive open cluster of stars around the three belt stars of Orion. This cluster is best seen with binoculars. A Leonid meteor zoomed by to the left of Orion to complete the evening's festivities.
Meteor (Meteor, est. mag -10, est. to be in Orion)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: naked eye Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: light Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Sat Oct 21 04:15:00 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1571
Just after midnight on Oct. 21st., My friend Joe Cseh and I went to the beach to observe the Orinid Meteor shower from 12:15 AM to 2:15 AM EDT. During the two hours that we observed, I saw 22 meteors varying in colors ranging from orange, yellow, white and blue. One of the meteors, was a white bolide whos magnitude we estimated was a -10. The bolide left a meteor train that lasted for five minutes. During the time, the smoke trail changed from being straight to being comma shaped. We also saw other meteors which left brief smoke trails. This turned out to be a great meteor shower.
M42 (Orion Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com, web: http://home.mindspring.com/~jcaggiano/)
Instrument: 6-inch equatorial reflector Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: excellent
Time: Wed Mar 8 01:45:00 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1508
Nice viewing of M42 and M43 region. Using binoviewers at 71x and 142x and a Nebula Filter, the Great Nebula Region was huge! Long whisps of mist coiled around inside my FOV and the M43 cloud was also readily visible. The trapezium yielded 5 stars without the Nebula filter but only 4 stars with it on the eyepiece. The stars lose about a magnitude or so when using the filters in order to draw out more contrast for the nebula,s visibility.
M42 (Orion Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com, web: http://home.mindspring.com/~jcaggiano/)
Instrument: 6-inch equatorial reflector Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: excellent
Time: Mon Feb 20 02:00:00 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1496
Simply beautiful view of the Great Nebula. It was crisp and easy to view at any power (71x up to 203x). Made out 5 stars in the Trapezium. M43 appeared larger than usual due to the excellent observing conditions. Still have not been able to see any real detail to NCG 1973, 1975 or 1977 as of yet. Perhaps through time exposure I will have some luck.
M42 (Orion Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 10-mm binoculars Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: fair Seeing: good
Time: Mon Feb 13 23:15:00 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1490
This evening, after finishing work, my friend Don Hartlin and I took a ten minute binocular view of the night sky. First we went to M42 the Orion Nebula. In 10X50 binoculars, M42 looked like a small nebula with two blue stars in it. We then shifted to the three belt stars of Orion to observe Colandor 70, which is an open cluster of stars around the three belt stars. M45, the Pleiades, looks great in binoculars. However, because it wasn't quite dark out, we could not see the blue color of the stars. Finally The Hyades open cluster was really impressive with its mostly yellow stars. All in all, a nice evening of observing.
M42 (Orion Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: B (e-mail: brilbri29@hotmail.com)
Instrument: 8-inch equatorial reflector Location: Denver, Colorado, USofA
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: good Seeing: poor
Time: Thu Dec 29 16:00:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1459
Bright Nebula in Orion. Very bright. Could see the wavy fingers of the nebula, if you know what I mean.Slit the trapezium easily, I was going to go for the fainter star 1F but forgot!! Can't believe it.
Other (Other, est. mag 7.0, est. to be in Orion)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: fair Seeing: fair
Time: Wed Dec 21 03:00:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1443
This evening, I observed an open cluster of stars around the three belt stars of Orion. The cluster is known as Colander 70. With my scope, I could see many stars of this cluster as I fan my scope up and down the three belt stars of Orion. It seems to me that most of the stars are yellow with a bit of orange tinge in them. Also I noted several double stars within the cluster. One double was a blue star with a fainter companion. This open cluster is also visible with binoculars and a finder scope.
M42 (Orion Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: Akarsh Simha (e-mail: akarsh_simha@fastmail.fm)
Instrument: 8-inch equatorial reflector Location: Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Light pollution: none Transparency: excellent Seeing: excellent
Time: Thu Dec 8 22:00:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1447
This observation was from a village about 50 kms from the city, where light pollution is practically nil. The Orion Nebula looked like a grayscale version of David Malin's photograph of the same. It was breathtaking. The city of Bangalore offers enough light pollution to mar the view completely.M 43 in the field appeared as a separate patch of nebulosity with a star in the center.The whole thing looked like a bird with wings spread out.
M42 (Orion Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com, web: http://home.mindspring.com/~jcaggiano/)
Instrument: 70-mm binoculars Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: excellent
Time: Thu Dec 8 04:00:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1428
Viewed the Moon and M42 last night. Started with the moon shortly after coming home from work. I was able to take a few pics of it with the LPI and have posted another mosaic on my webpage. About 5 hours later I viewed M42 with my 15x70 binos and a nebula filter. The view at 15x with the filter was amazing! The nebula looked completely different than what I am used to. Overall, it was about 1 1/2 times larger than usual. The filter really brought out subtle features that are invisible otherwise. The nebula took on a flame-shape with smaller nebulae being just visible above. (I believe this was NGC1973, 75 and 77). There was also a definite green hue clearly visible. On previous viewings through my scope I have picked up hues of pale green without having the filter. But with the filter, a much darker green is definetly visible even through much smaller aperature binos. I will target this nebula region with much more scrutiny this weekend if given the chance. We are due in for a major snow storm tonight through the weekend.
M78 (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: Sriram.M.Gubbi (e-mail: sriram_gubbi@yahoo.co.in, web: http://dino.lm.com/artists/display.php?name=sriram_gubbi)
Instrument: 6-inch other Location: Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: excellent Seeing: good
Time: Fri Nov 11 04:15:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1408
It can be easily found with a wide field scope. It appeared comet like with about 2 stars surrounded by it.
M42 (Orion Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: Lee S (e-mail: nospam-laspain123@aol.com, web: http://cgi.tripod.com/astro-cracker/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl)
Instrument: 2.8-inch refractor Location: Atlanta, GA, USA
Light pollution: severe Transparency: excellent Seeing: excellent
Time: Sat Oct 29 08:00:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1384
As impressive as M42 is with binoculars, it was fun to get a closer view with my Orion Observer. The Trapezium (Theta 1) was easily resolved into 4 stars. With 25mm Explorer II, I could see there were 4 stars, the 10mm Explorer II made it more clear, and the 8mm Plossl provided a good view as well. The only downside that I saw was that the general impression of the gas cloud area was slightly diminished for me when looking through the scope.
M42 (Orion Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: Lee S (e-mail: nospam-laspain123@aol.com, web: http://cgi.tripod.com/astro-cracker/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl)
Instrument: 50-mm binoculars Location: Atlanta, GA, USA
Light pollution: severe Transparency: excellent Seeing: excellent
Time: Sat Oct 29 07:15:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1383
I was glad to stay up late enough to greet Orion for the first time this fall. With an old pair of 10x50 wide angle binoculars, I could see M42 and get a general impression of the gas clouds around the region.
Meteor (Meteor, est. mag 3.0, est. to be in Orion)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: naked eye Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: fair Seeing: fair
Time: Thu Oct 20 05:10:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1375
Early this morning, I decided to try to observe the Orinid meteor shower even though there was an almost full moon. Surprisingly, I observed five fast moving meteors that seemed to come out of Orion. The brightest meteor was about 3rd magnitude. All the meteors looked white to me.
NGC2071 (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: Emil Neata (e-mail: forvert2000@yahoo.com, web: http://www.nightskyinfo.com)
Instrument: 4.5-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: No location given
Light pollution: light Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Mon Oct 10 23:00:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1351
NGC 2071 is extremely faint, I've only managed to see it by using averted vision. It has a round shape, surrounds a 8th magnitude star.
NGC1973 (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: Emil Neata (e-mail: forvert2000@yahoo.com, web: http://www.nightskyinfo.com)
Instrument: 4.5-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: No location given
Light pollution: light Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Mon Oct 10 23:00:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1350
NGC 1973 surrounds a 8.3 magnitude star. It is easily seen without averted vision, round shape, the northern part is the brighter.
View Observations | Add Observations
Help | Discussion | Acknowledgements
Questions? Problems? E-mail jbc@west.net
 |
Object database created with dObjects |  |
Logo created with Pixelsight |