Mairan's Nebula (M43) Observation Details
M43 Daily Motion
M43 will rise at 17:34, reaching 35° when twilight begins at 20:59. It will reach transit at 45° by 23:15 and will set before twilight ends at 04:56.M43 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.
M43 Visibility Timetable on January 03
Rise and Set Timetable
| Time | Elevation | |
| Moon Rise, 8.5% illuminated | 10:09 | -52° |
| M43 rise | 17:34 | |
| Civil sunset | 17:49 | 3° |
| Astrosession begin | 18:55 | 15° |
| Moon Set | 20:21 | 30° |
| M43 transit | 23:15 | 45° |
| M43 set | 04:56 | |
| Astrosession end | 06:17 | -15° |
Track M43 Position Throughout the Night
← Fri, 3 January 2025 →
| Time | |
| Altitude | |
| Azimuth |
M43 - De Mairan's Nebula
M43, also known as De Mairan's Nebula, is a diffuse nebula located in the constellation Orion. It was discovered by Jean-Jacques Dortous de Mairan before 1731 and later cataloged by Charles Messier in 1769. M43 is part of the Orion Nebula (M42) complex.
M43 spans about 4 light-years across and contains a bright, young star that illuminates the surrounding gas and dust. The nebula is approximately 1,344 light-years away from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 9.0, making it visible with a small telescope.
M43 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 M43
| Object name | M43 |
| Field of view | |
| Limiting magnitude | |
| M43 coordinates | 5.59205, -5.26747 |
| Center coordinates | 5.59205, -5.26747 |
M43 Passage Through Night
Current position of M43
| Time | 20:59 |
| Latitude | 39.9625 |
| Longitude | -83.0061 |
| M43 elevation | 35° |
| M43 Azimuth | -137° |
Annual motion of M43
| Date | Sat, 4 January 2025 |
| Twighlight start | 18:56 |
| Twighlight end | 06:15 |
| Twighlight duration | 11h 19m |
| Rise | 17:30 |
| Set | 04:52 |
| Elevation at transit | 45° |
| Transit time | 23:11 |
| Equatorial coordinate | RA: 05h 35m 31s", Dec: -5° 16' 02s |
| Magnitude | 9 |
| 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 M43 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.