Orion Nebula (M42) Observation Details
M42 Daily Motion
M42 rise at 18:49, and will be at 23° when twilight starts at 20:53. It will reach its transit at 46° at 00:31, and will set at 06:12, before twighlight ends at 06:14.M42 will be visible until April, 7, when it will move too close to the Sun. During this time, its proximity to the Sun will cause it to disappear from the night sky, making it unobservable for a while.
M42 Rise and Set Timetable
| Time | Elevation | |
| Moon Rise, 51.1% illuminated | 12:36 | -56° |
| M42 Rise | 18:49 | |
| Astrosession begin | 20:53 | 23° |
| M42 Transit | 00:31 | 46° |
| Moon Set | 00:31 | 46° |
| M42 Set | 06:12 | |
| Astrosession end | 06:14 | -0° |
Track M42 Position Throughout the Night
| Time | |
| Altitude | |
| Azimuth |
M42 - Orion Nebula
The Orion Nebula (M42) is a diffuse nebula located in the constellation Orion. It was discovered by Nicholas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc in 1610 and later cataloged by Charles Messier in 1769. M42 is one of the brightest nebulae in the sky and can be seen with the naked eye.
M42 spans about 24 light-years across and contains a rich population of young stars, including the Trapezium, a group of four massive stars. The nebula is approximately 1,344 light-years away from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 4.0, making it a popular target for amateur astronomers.
M42 Image Gallery
DSS Blue
DSS Red
DSS Near-Infrared
DSS Composite image
The photos are taken from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2), which was produced at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) under NASA contract, using data from the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), the European Southern Observatory (ESO), and the National Geographic Society-Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS II).
Special thanks to the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, and the California Institute of Technology for their significant contributions.
Finder Chart for M42
| Object name | M42 |
| Field of view | |
| Limiting magnitude | |
| M42 coordinates | 5.58791, -5.38967 |
| Center coordinates | 5.58791, -5.38967 |
M42 Passage Through Night
Current position of M42
| Time | 20:53 |
| Latitude | 39.0469 |
| Longitude | -77.4903 |
| M42 elevation | 23° |
| M42 Azimuth | -118° |
Annual motion of M42
| Date | Tue, 10 December 2024 |
| Twighlight start | 18:23 |
| Twighlight end | 05:40 |
| Twighlight duration | 11h 17m |
| Rise | 18:45 |
| Set | 06:09 |
| Elevation at transit | 46° |
| Transit time | 00:27 |
| Equatorial coordinate | RA: 05h 35m 16s", Dec: -5° 23' 22s |
| Magnitude | 4 |
| Constellation | Orion |
The graph is structured with the vertical axis showing the hours of the day, ranging from 12 AM to 12 AM the next day, while the horizontal axis spans each day of the year.
The reddish shaded area indicates the periods when the M42 is above the horizon, visible to observers. The white line marks the times when the celestial object reaches its highest point in the sky each day, known as the transit.
Data Credits
The nebulae information on this page is sourced from the OpenNGC project, developed by Matteo Verga. OpenNGC provides detailed data on the NGC catalog, which is a valuable resource for exploring deep-sky objects such as nebulae.
For more details or to contribute to OpenNGC, visit the official GitHub repository: OpenNGC on GitHub.