| Messier/type: | M43 / Bright nebula, emission & reflection |
| mag/dia/dist: | 9 / 19'x15' / 1,500 ly |
| constellation: | Orion |
| date/time/place: | Oct 20, 2001 / 03:00 / Bangkok |
| trans'y/seeing/l-poll: | fair / fair / medium |
| telescope: | newtonian 4.5" f8.8 |
| eyepieces/power: | 10mm / 100x |
| sky atlas page: | 11 |
Star hopping doesn't necessary for M43 & M42, try to look at orion belt stars three stars aligned in straight line at equal interval [ . . . ], look under the belt (in the section of Rigel, the super giant star, luminosity 60,000 times of the Sun), look at three points of faint light known as orion sword. M42 locates at the center of orion sword. At eyepiece 25mm (40x), M42 major feature is trapezium, easily seen for four major stars surrounding with bright nebulosity, some part of nebula extend along three bright stars (at upper part in my sketch) It is the most beautiful nebula in northern-hemisphere !
M43 is quite hard to visual observing especially on highly polluted sky like Bangkok. M43 appears as very faint glow around star Nu Orionis (at center of my sketch), it can't confirm shape & size of glowing gas, but it seems to have faint link with M42.
Refer to text: Very bright and large, extend 8 ly. Home