Messier 42, 43 & 78

M42 (NGC 1976) is a star forming nebula, an emission and reflection nebula in Orion.

M43 (NGC 1982) is also a star forming nebula and emission and reflection nebula with an open star cluster, also in Orion.

M78 (NGC 2068) is the great star forming nebula, a reflection nebula, with an open star cluster, in Orion.

Mark Bailey

The picture was taken with a modified Canon Rebel camera on a TEC 140 telescope from the Alpenglow-Torrey House Observatory in the dark sky community of Torrey, Utah (Bortle 2-3) on November 25, 2022. 12 two-minute sub frames stacked in Deep Sky Stacker = 24 minute photo. Unguided, no calibration frames.

“Arguably the most famous of all astronomy nebulas, the Great Nebula in Orion is an immense interstellar molecular cloud only 1500 light-years away. . . The Great Nebula in Orion can be found with the unaided eye near the easily identifiable belt of three stars in the popular constellation Orion. The entire Orion Nebula, including both M42 and M43 spans about 40 light years and is located in the same spiral arm of our Galaxy as the Sun.” -NASA

locator star chart for M43

NASA and Stellarium

Astrometry.net

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