McNeil's Nebula

[Dave Mitsky]

Jay McNeil, a well-known American amateur deep-sky observer, recently discovered a new nebula in the Lynds 1630 cloud near M78 in Orion while imaging. It is a cometary-type reflection nebula in the 15th to 16th magnitude range and may be an FU Orionis object.

Jay's discovery image is posted at http://wkaa.net/gallery/mcneil/m78Lrgb

See http://wkaa.net/gallery/mcneil/mcneilnebul...ulalum90labeled (http://wkaa.net/gallery/mcneil/mcneilnebulalum90labeled) for a cropped image.

A comparison image is available at http://www.balinka.com/m78c.jpg

Visual sightings of McNeil's Nebula through large aperture amateur scopes have already been reported.

Dave Mitsky

[damienpaul]

May I ask what is meant by an 'FU Orionis' object?

[Dave Mitsky]

Originally posted by damienpaul@Feb 12 2004, 01:07 PM
May I ask what is meant by an 'FU Orionis' object?
An FU Orionis object is "a pre-main sequence star in the early stages of stellar development".

http://www.aavso.org/vstar/vsots/0202.shtml

Dave Mitsky

[damienpaul]

Just how many of these objects are there? I mean the ones we certainly know about?

[Dave Mitsky]

According to the article that I cited only ten of them are known to exist.

Dave Mitsky

[Dave Mitsky]

A remarkable animation of McNeil's Nebula is now available at http://www.rc-astro.com/nebulae/mcneil_anim.htm

Dave Mitsky

[damienpaul]

This is remarkable! a truely amazing opportunity to witness the birth of a star and its growth - it would certainly go a long way in proving the theories of stellar evolution.

Also it is as good excuse as any to keep the Hubble!

[VanderL]

Wonderful sequence, this is exactly what the latest instruments http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/in...cts.html?922004 (http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/instruments_fast_changing_objects.html?922004) are supposed to record.
Is it my eyes again or are there three bright patches (including the newborn star) that "light up" simultaneously?
Another thing I noticed is the shape of the nebula; the star is upper left and the nebula is not centered on the star, is that to be expected?
Cheers.

[Spacemad]

I took a look at the website you posted a link to Dave, & the photos there were really great! The images of McNeil´s Nebula were very good - it´s certainly very rare for someone to spot a recently born star like this from a small telescope in his back garden! Congratulations to Jay! :D

[Dave Mitsky]

The accomplished observer Bill Ferris was able to log McNeil 1 using only 10 inches of aperture from the Lowell Observatory's dark site at Anderson Mesa.

Browse http://members.aol.com/billferris/mcneil1.html for Bill's report.

Dave Mitsky

[Tiny]

Is it possible to find some hidden nebula in one of those February DSO List... ?

[ebbixx]

Just to add another piece to the mystery, take a gander at SEDS Messier catalog re: McNeil's Nebula (http://www.seds.org/messier/more/m078_mcneil.html). Apparently there is at least one prior image of the nebula dating back to Oct. 1966. However, it should be noted that the nebula was not picked up at that time, even though the image (shown at the page linked above) has been -- if I understand this correctly -- a commonly used image of M78. Since no one else picked it up, though, if I understand the "rules" correctly, McNeil will still get credit as its discoverer. :)

There seems to be some question, however, between those who seem to have assumed this nebula represents an observation of one or more stars in their birth-stage, or is instead some form of variable star(s) illuminating the dust cloud that surrounds it/them.

[johnm]

Thanks for these great links.