So we had the scope out at the mountains this evening. The seeing was excellent and there were few clouds. We saw what to us appeared to be a nebula at Orions "head" but when I got home and looked it up on Starry Night Backyard it's not there. It must not be a Messier object, but what is it?

Comet?

Just a wild guess...

Harald

Planet X...[img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]

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Once bread has become toast, it can never become bread again...

An out-of-focus Saturn? It's fairly near Orion's "head" now, but then so would M1 be, the Crab Nebula--they're about 6m apart in RA.

Geo-Synchronous satellite, maybe?

I think Grapes has it. Most likely the Crab Nebula, M1.

I don't think it was M1, and I know it wasn't Saturn. This was directly above his shoulders. Couldn't have been more than a degree or so off the line made between Betelgeuse and Meissa. And we saw it naked-averted eye before we put the scope to it. Thru the 10mm eyepeice it looked about half the size of M42, so it wasn't tiny.

And c'mon, I may be new to this but I can tell the difference between a diffuse cloud-like object and a planet [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

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The man on top of the mountain did not fall there. - unknown

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Kelfazin on 2003-01-28 12:47 ]</font>

The "Angelfish Nebula" (Sh2-264) is located near Orion's head, but it is absolutely impossible to see naked eye. There are many nebulae all through that area, so another possibility is that you saw a familiar nebula, but were confused about its location in or near Orion. Perhaps what you thought were "Orion's shoulders" was actually another part of Orion, and you were looking at the Great Nebula. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Chip on 2003-01-28 14:23 ]</font>

I do have a slight correction, the object was about 2 degrees off the line between Betelgeuse and Bellatrix, not Meissa. The object in question was about where Meissa lies actually. Could it have been Meissa lighting up some of the gases in the Orion system? Perhaps Meissa along with TYC705-172-1 (mag 7.6), TYC705-724-1 (mag 7.4), TYC705-74-1 (mag 6.7), and Phi1 Orionis (mag 4.3) all worked together to cause this? I dunno, I just know it was a diffuse cloud-like object right around where Meissa is.

Just to clear up a point or two, I've been fascinated by the Orion constellation since I was about 10, that was 17 years ago. I do know the shape of the constellation and didn't confuse his head with M42/43 lol. I'm new to the scope, not to the constellations. Please give me at least a little respect...[img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]

My bro and I are haading back out otnight, hopefully, if the seeing is as good as last night, we'll get a halfway decent shot of the object and I'll post it.

In the meant time, thanks for the answers. I'm more curious now to find out what it is because you guys didn't have an immediate answer. I figured I would post here and you guys would say "bah, that's just the plain old suchandsuch nebula" [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

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I was just sitting here contemplating the immortal words of Socrates who said, "I drank what?"

"Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot." --Carl Sagan "Pale Blue Dot"

Those stars are bright enough that you wouldn't have mistaken them in a telescope. NGC2169 is close to the area, and might have been detected naked eye but wouldn't have been confused through a telescope, I think.

The interesting part is that you saw it naked eye.

Unfortunately it clouded up last night so I wasn't able to get back out there. I've got some new lenses and a camera mount coming and my bro is gonna pick some 3200 speed b/w film from his school tonight so maybe we'll get a good shot of it. If it's still there I guess.

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I was just sitting here contemplating the immortal words of Socrates who said, "I drank what?"

"Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot." --Carl Sagan "Pale Blue Dot"

Respect, respect, respect....Ah here it is in my Websters New College Dictionary. "That which one does not get on the Bad Astronomy Bulliten Board" [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img] [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_lol.gif[/img]

Just kidding! We'll tease you about almost anything around here. We wouldn't tease ya iff'n we didn't luv ya.

We're looking forward to your pics. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

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It's just one of those damn things of which there are many few. -- Dan Blocker

I spent some time consulting my astronomy references and came up with zip on nebulae in Orion's head until I cracked open my 25 year old copy of the Peterson FIELD GUIDE TO THE STARS AND PLANETS by (the late) Donald Menzel. He says in the text accompanying chart 25:
"There are many faint irregular patches of nebulosity...Some luminosity lies in the head of Orion, between lamda and phi-1 Orionis."
The atlas charts in this book are photo-negative plates and the one for Orion shows a faint but well-defined patch of nebulosity approximately one degree north of
lambda. I don't know if this is what you saw,
but a really good atlas like Uranometria or Sky Atlas 2000.0 might help you pin it down, The Cambridge Star Atlas isn't up to hunting down something this obscure. I compliment your excellent observing site (and eagle-like vision) if you saw this naked-eye.

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If you can't dazzle 'em with dexterity, baffle 'em with BS.

Perhaps it was THIS:

NGC 2022

Planetary nebula ring.

Constellation Ori

Dreyer Descr. PLN,PB,VS,VLE

Magnitude: 12.00

RA, Dec: 5h 42m 25.7s , 9d 5m 18s N

Az, Alt: 36d 55m 46s , 39d 17m 45s S

Rise:16h 38m Transit:23h 5m Set: 5h 35m

Source Catalog NGC


Muwahahahhah

dude you are resurrecting a dead thread. People have been known to be banned because of this.

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A slight inclination of the cranium is as adequate as a spasmodic movement of one optic towards an equinine quadruped utterly devoid of any visionary capacity.

Yes. Welcome to the boards, rising-star, but starting out by answering a question that was asked three years ago is less than ideal.

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