Deep Sky · 2 of 5
The Orion Nebula
Where in Orion can you see stars being born?
Hang a right off Orion's Belt into the nearest nursery of massive stars, where new ones are being made tonight.
You’ll be able to find the Orion Nebula below Orion’s Belt.
Before this: Measure the Sky with Your Hand (5 min), Orion: The Hunter (6 min)
Where and which night
Working out when this is best placed from where you are…
Where
Kept for this guide only, until you change it here — your map settings, and every other guide, stay as they are.
Print, play outside or present
Scan with a phone's camera, or open
Sources
- HYG stellar database v4.2 — star positions and magnitudes
- Menten et al., A&A 474, 515 (2007) — VLBI parallax to the Orion Nebula Cluster, 414 ± 7 pc
- Hillenbrand, AJ 113, 1733 (1997) — the young stellar population of the nebula and the Trapezium
- O'Dell, The Orion Nebula: Where Stars Are Born (Harvard UP 2003) — ionisation structure and proplyds
- Bally, "Overview of the Orion Complex", Handbook of Star Forming Regions I (2008) — the Belt stars as the older Orion OB1b subgroup
- Bortle, "The Bortle Dark-Sky Scale", Sky & Telescope, February 2001
With a keyboard, focus the sky, aim it with the up and down arrow keys, and press Enter to drop the pin at the centre of the view; or press Show me.