Located about 1500 light years away, the nebula glows red predominantly from the light of hydrogen gas excited by energetic newly formed stars in the heart of the nebula. It is the nearest star forming region to our own star, the Sun.
NGC 1975 , just below M42 here, is a complex of blue reflection nebulae mixed with dark lanes and a touch of red emission nebulae. The blue color comes from reflected starlight scattered by dust. NGC 1975 is often overlooked because of its spectacular neighbor, but is outstanding in its own right, being one of the brightest reflection nebulae in the sky.
South is up in this image.
Exposure Data
- Camera: Nikon F3
- Lens: Triplet 130 EDT f/8 refractor
- F/stop: f/8
- Exposure: Composite of 50 minute and 5 minute single exposures
- Film: Gas-hypersensitized Kodak Ektapress Multispeed PJM color negative film
- Mount: Losmandy GM100EQ Polar-aligned German-equatorial mount
- Filter: None
- Exposure start: 06:17, 7:00 UT
- Date: November 12 1996
- Location: Chatsworth, NJ, USA
- Temp: 20.6F
- Dew: 3
- Transparency: 8
- Seeing: 5
- Autoguider error: A2
- Notes: no wind