Pic Of The Day, December 20th

Markjcj · 20 Dec 2002 at 21:01

Tonight I bring you a picture of another nebula, one that a lot more people will probably be more familiar with, The Great Nebula in Orion.
This nebula is a stuuning sight to behold and is even viewable with a respectable pair of binoculars. It is an awe inspiring sight and one that I would reccomend anybody with a decent set of binoculars or a telescope to seek out for themselves.

One of the most famous nebulae in planet Earth's night sky, astrophotographer Robert Gendler has constructed this stunning, color-enhanced mosiac of the region surrounding the Great Nebula in Orion. As seen here, the clouds of Orion are dominated by the reddish emission nebula M42 near the bottom of the image, with blue reflection nebulae, including NGC 1977, near the top. Strewn with dust lanes and dark nebulae, the striking cosmic apparitions surrounding Orion's stellar nurseries are about 1,500 light-years away and are themselves several light-years across. Located at the edge of a giant molecular cloud complex spanning hundreds of light-years, these nebulae represent only a small, but very visible(!), fraction of this region's wealth of interstellar material. Within these colorful clouds of Orion, astronomers have also identified what appear to be numerous infant solar systems.

A larger version of this picture is available here this is a Jpeg file of 329K.

This is a simple viewing guide for The Great Nebula in Orion

This viewing guide is taken from this site here

Previous Pic Of The Day posts

19th Dec 02
18th Dec 02
17th Dec 02
16th Dec 02
15th Dec 02
14th Dec 02
23rd Nov 02

Markjcj · 20 Dec 2002 at 23:58

Originally posted by kaiowas
Whilst all of these digitally enhanced piccies taken through stupidly expensive equipment and whatnot are all very nice and that I'd be interested in seeing a snapshot of the kind of thing that average joe is capable of seeing with a half decent telescope if anyone with the appropriate kit could oblige

Just for you good s'ah, this here link should provide you with that which you asked for

Markjcj · 21 Dec 2002 at 00:15

Personally I've found that with The Great Nebula in Orion is best viewed through a decent pair of binoculars (min. 12x50), you can see the colour quite well then.

Markjcj · 21 Dec 2002 at 00:50

Originally posted by zetti
i've always fancied a pair of them really big binos' could never justify the price tag though You can count the number of clear nights a year in this country on one hand nowadays It's always cloudy!

Well you can pick up a cheap set of 20x50 for about £30 from a certain high street catalogue shop, but they are CHEAP in every sense of the word, however the same place stocks a pair for £70 that have a zoom arrangement from 10 to 50 xMag that are almost reasonable at the lower half of the zoom range, not bad if you're on a tight budget. And for the pupose of amature astronomy are probably better than the cheapo (£80 to £130) telescopes that you pick up off the high street, the only downside to using binoculars is the arm ache.
For best choice it's always worth checking out a reputable camera shop that does recon gear for decent binoculars, you can often find a good bargain on a decent set.