M42, the Orion Nebula

Image by Wade Van Arsdale.
Located at a distance of about 1,500 light years, the Orion Nebula is the brightest diffuse nebula in the sky, visible to the naked eye, and rewarding in telescopes of every size, from the smallest glasses to the greatest Earth-bound observatories and the Hubble Space Telescope.

It is the main part of a much larger cloud of gas and dust which extends over 10 degrees well over half the constellation Orion. The linear extent of this giant cloud is well several hundreds of light years. It can be visualized by long exposure photos and contains, besides the Orion nebula near its center, the following objects, often famous on their own: Barnard's Loop, the Horsehead Nebula region, and the reflection nebulae around M78. Already impressive in deep visible light photographs, the Orion Cloud is particularly gorgeous in the infrared light.