Astronomy Tips&Tricks – How To Find Orion Nebula (M42)

Written by Marko on November 13, 2007

Orion Nebula, also called as Messier 42 and M42, is one of the most photographed object in the nightsky. This brightest nebula is possible to spot on naked eye, although you might not see the differences to other objects around M42. Orion Nebula was found in the early 1600’s by few astronomers, but it has been said that the “original finders” have been Christiaan Huygens and Charles Messier in the middle of 1600’s. M42 is part of bigger constellations, such as M78 and M43, as well as Horsehead Nebula.

M42 is located close to Orion constellation, so you should start your M42 hunt from Orion. The Orion constellation is bright and therefore quite easy to find and recognize, especially on winter. It is probably the second easiest constellation to spot. Which one is the first one? I believe it is Big Dipper. Unfortunatelly I have not written yet any post describing how to find constellations such as Orion and Big Dipper. If you don’t know how to find those constellations, please come back after few days. I will write about those after this post. Now I will concentrate in describing how to find M42, the Orion Nebula. By the way, there are very many objects to watch in the nightsky. Check out my article about the various objects. You might find some new objects to watch.

I assume you have now recognized Orion constellation on nightsky. So, where is the Orion Nebula? Orion constellation represents a “hunter” in Greek mythology (see the figure left). See the belt of the hunter, the three bright stars in a line. Below that line of stars you can see another vetical line of stars which represents a sword. M42 is in the middle of the sword (see the figure on left). Here is the chart for finding M42.

How could you best find it? Start by looking at the Orion constellation on naked eye. Locate the hunter’s belt and sword, just like described above. After you have found the the sword, look in the middle of the line and see M42 there. Next look at M42 with binoculars which helps you to see the nebula, not just an object that looks like any other star. Next take your telescope. Use magnification such as 40x first, because it can be very difficult to find M42 with high magnification. As soon as you have spotted M42 with lower magnification, increase the magnification. You can go up to 100x, 150x and such, but first try to find the nebula with 40x magnification.

Was this helpfull? Please leave a comment if you need more explanation or if you have other good tips in finding the Orion Nebula. It would be nice to hear if this post helped you to find the nebula. For other tips&tricks of skywatching I recommend you to read my post of finding Andromeda galaxy. For more about galaxies, see my article of galaxies. Happy skywatching!

Comments

01-05-2009
1:08 pm

yusuf

hi im 11 and im really intrested in astronomy. i got a 60mm refracting telescope for chrismas its very good for watching the moon. you can see mare, mountain ridges and craters. i tried to look for m42 nebulae in orion but all i saw was stars whith 40x,132x,66x,217x and 200x. can someone show a picture of what i can see whith these magnafications . Thank you
08-14-2009
5:55 am

own

Use magnification such as 40x first, because it can be very difficult to find M42 with high magnification. As soon as you have spotted M42 with lower magnification, increase the magnification.