The constellation Orion will be high in the southeast sky at 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 11. Look for the three stars in his belt. Photo courtesy of starrynight.com

With the new moon this week, it is an excellent time to explore the constellation Orion. The famous hunter is now high in the southeast sky by 7 p.m. Its seven brightest stars and distinctive pattern make it easy to find. The three stars in Orion’s belt stand out here; look for three fainter stars hanging down from the belt. These make up the hunter’s sword.

In the center of the sword, you’ll find one of the most spectacular nebulas in the night sky. Known as M42, or simply as the Orion Nebula, this is a huge cloud of gas and dust located more than 1,300 light years away from us.

Though it is bright enough to be seen with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope is necessary to get a good look at it. You don’t need much magnification. Images of M42 are quite colorful due to the glowing gases here, but our eyes are not good at seeing colors at night. Our eyes are most sensitive to green, so objects like M42 often appear to have a greenish color when viewed with a telescope.

Orion’s sword hangs down from the belt. Amateur astronomer Chuck Ayoub took this image that shows the famous Orion Nebula (M42) and M43 near the center and the Running Man Nebula at the top. Photo by Chuck Ayoub

The Orion Nebula is one of the best examples we have of how stars are born, for it is a stellar nursery. There are several hundred stars inside it that are in various stages of formation. Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have found at least 150 newborn stars.

At the heart of the nebula, four stars stand out here. Collectively, it’s known as the Trapezium or Trapezium Cluster due to its trapezoid shape. It was first spotted by Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei. There are several stars in this cluster, and you can usually spot about six of them with a small- to medium-sized telescope.

You may notice that the Orion Nebula has a little knot of gas on one side. This is M43. Discovered by the French scientist Jean-Jacques d’Ortous de Mairan, it is sometimes called the De Marian’s Nebula. It is actually not a separate nebula but an offshoot of the Orion Nebula. This blob of gas is illuminated by a large, blue-white giant star about 20 times more massive than our sun. At the top of Orion’s sword lies another interesting but less well-known cloud of gas. More commonly, it is referred to by its catalog number, Sharpless 279, and by its popular nickname, the Running Man Nebula, due to the dark clouds located here that resemble a person running.

It is far fainter and farther away than the Orion Nebula (about 1,500 light years). It is so faint that it is really quite difficult to spot visually in a telescope, but it is a popular target for astrophotographers due to its unique shape. Like the Orion Nebula, the Running Man contains several young stars.

This richly detailed view of the star formation region M78 was taken with the VISTA telescope at European Southern Observatory’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. Photo courtesy of ESO

Another nebula here is quite different than the previous ones I’ve mentioned. M78 is a small nebula about 1,600 light years away. It is located on Orion’s side just above the leftmost star in the belt; you can think of it as Orion’s love handle. Although it is impressive in professional images, in a telescope it is much more subdued. It is quite faint and needs a good-sized telescope 10 inches in diameter or larger to show detail. Some stargazers have described it as almost comet-like in appearance. What makes this nebula different is that it is not illuminated from within by stars, like the others. It is lit by starlight reflecting off of dust in the nebula.

Orion will be visible for much of the night; look for it and these nebulae in the early evening. They will be high in the southern sky by 10 p.m., and you can view them until they start going down in the west around 3 a.m.

Winter Stargazing

On Tuesday, Jan. 12 at 8:30 p.m., journey with the Newark Museum to the Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter high in the Santa Catalina Mountains of Arizona. The dark, night skies at this site offer superb stargazing. With the 32-inch diameter Schulman Telescope, they will explore celestial objects visible in the winter sky — from the planet Mars and spectacular nebulae to star clusters and distant galaxies. Registration is required. The event is free, but donations are appreciated.

Kevin D. Conod is the planetarium manager and astronomer at The Newark Museum of Art’s Dreyfuss Planetarium. For updates on the night sky, call the Newark Skyline at (973) 596-6529.