Home > Constellations, Deep Sky Object, Ephemeris Program, Nebulae > Ephemeris: 01/15/2026 – Orion’s great cloud

Ephemeris: 01/15/2026 – Orion’s great cloud

January 15, 2026

This is Ephemeris for Thursday, January 15th. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 12 minutes, setting at 5:28, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:15. The Moon, 3 days before new, will rise at 7:09 tomorrow morning.

The brightest interstellar cloud visible in our skies is the Great Orion Nebula. The word nebula is from the Latin “nebulum” for cloud. The constellation of Orion is filled with nebulae, most of it are dim or dark. The Great Orion Nebula is in Orion’s sword. The sword is what looks like three stars that look dimmer than the three belt stars hanging from the belt. There are actually more than three stars here. Around the stars that appear as the center of the sword stars, to the eye, can be seen a haze in binoculars. A telescope with a wider aperture and low power can see detail in the cloud. With more magnification, a clutch of four baby stars can be spotted in the brightest part of the nebula. They light up the nebula and are called the Trapezium.

The astronomical event times given in this blog are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (Lat 44.7° N, Long 85.7° W; EST, UT – 5 hours) unless stated otherwise. Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum

Orion is lousy with gas and dust. A regular star factory, or nursery. The red nebulae shows the predominance of hydrogen in here. The white nebulosity to the right of Rigel is the Witches Head nebula, probably the reflection of Rigel’s light off a dust cloud. Base image by Bernal Andreo, via Wikipedia.
The Great Orion Nebula
The Great Orion Nebula, the birthplace of stars, along with some dark dusty nebulae. Credit: Daniel Dall’Olmo
Inner part of the Great Orion Nebula. Image by Scott Anttila
Inner part of the Great Orion Nebula, including the four stars of the Trapezium. Image by Scott Anttila
Categories: Constellations, Deep Sky Object, Ephemeris Program, Nebulae Tags: ,