Astr110 Photography Projects, Spring 2006

M43, Jonathan Mosier

The diffuse nebula, M43, is an emission and reflection nebula that is part of the much larger Orion nebula. It is located in the constellation Orion. It has a distance from earth of 1.6(kly) and a visual brightness of 9.0(mag). This nebula was discovered before 1731 by Jean-Jacques Dortous de Mairan. He first described it as a brilliance surrounding a star and compared it to the atmosphere of our sun. M43 surrounds the irregular young "nebula variable", NU Orionis and is excited by the shine of this star.

Unfortunately, due to some error in the picture taking process, I was not able to capture the nearby nebula M42 in its entirety. This makes extensive description and measurement of the angular size quite difficult. I find this nebula to be particularly amazing, however, and I enjoy the combination of colors that it displays.

References:
http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m043.html