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Ephemeris: 01/05/2024 – The Great Orion Nebula

January 5, 2024 Comments off

This is Ephemeris for Friday, January 5th. The Sun will rise at 8:20. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 56 minutes, setting at 5:16. The Moon, 2 days past last quarter, will rise at 3:18 tomorrow morning.

The constellation Orion the hunter is in the south-southeast at 9 p.m. Its upright rectangle of four stars frame his belt of three stars in a straight line and still tilt a bit to the left. Below the belt is what appear to the unaided eye as three more stars arranged vertically, his sword. Binoculars aimed at the middle stars of the sword will find a glowing haze around those stars. That is the Great Orion Nebula, also known as Messier 42 or M42. It is the birthplace of stars, and is even illuminated by a clutch of four hot young stars. Besides stars and protostars being born in the nebula, there are also many double planets not belonging to stars discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope. The planets are only detectable in the infrared, Webb’s specialty.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.

Addendum

The lower part of Orion with the Great Orion Nebula. Created using Stellarium.
The lower part of Orion with the Great Orion Nebula. Created using Stellarium.
The Great Orion Nebula (M42) long exposure photograph
The Great Orion Nebula (M42) long exposure photograph by Scott Anttila. Includes all the sword stars.
High resolution view of the Great Orion Nebula by Dan Dell’Olmo. Click or tap on the image to enlarge it.
Categories: Ephemeris Program, Nebula, Observing Tags: , , ,