Messier 78 Reflection nebula in Orion
Messier 78 is a spectacular blue reflection nebula in the constellation Orion. It is the brightest diffuse reflection nebula in a group of nebulae that includes NGC 2064, NGC 2067, and NGC 2071. It lies at an approximate distance of 1,600 light years from Earth. It has the designation NGC 2068 in the New General Catalogue.
What is supersizing is how many other interesting objects are in this nebula. This patch of sky is absolutely gorgeous.
It houses many Herbig-Haro (HH) objects are luminous regions surrounding newborn stars, formed when stellar winds or jets of gas spewing from these newborn stars form shock waves colliding with nearby gas and dust at high speeds.
The Face seen here to the right is in the center on NGC 2068 (M78)
McNeil’s Nebula is also in this frame, while it’s not impressive in this image. I was imaging this object in 2003 and noticed it when I heard of the discovery. Too bad I didn’t examine the images very well back then.
Image Processing and Calibration: Mark Hanson
24" Planewave CDK f6.5 and L600 Mount, Camera SBIG 16803 Location: SWOS, El Sauce Chile
Data Collection: Hanson, Mazlin, Parker, Forman 2021
Enjoy, Mark
The face of M78 hidden in its reflection
Labeled Version
On January 23, 2004 American amateur astronomer Jay McNeil photographed the nebula using a 3-inch refractor and discovered a new bright nebula that had not appeared in images taken before September 2003, with the exception of images taken by amateur astronomer Evered Kreimer in October 1966. The nebula is now called McNeil’s Nebula and is believed to be a highly variable reflection nebula surrounding a young star.
These images from 4 meter Mahill telescope.