Astro: Fox Face Nebula NGC 1788

NGC 1788 is a Orion Nebula, not THE Orion Nebula but it certainly is a
nebula in Orion. We normally think of emission nebula when mention is
made of Orion but it has many reflection nebula as well. This one is
rather unknown however. It has a dark nebula running through it, Lynds
1616. It is likely part of NGC 1788 rather than something separate well
in front of it. The nebula appears to be part of the same huge
molecular cloud that is responsible for THE Orion Nebula, M42-43. At
least its distance is about the same at 1300 light years. Normally only
the bright central part is thought of as being the nebula but as you can
see it really is far larger, larger than my field of view.

There are two asteroids in the image, in the upper left corner is
(54443) 2000 MT5 at magnitude 18.3. It is moving mostly up in the image
and looks a bit like an edge on galaxy. There is a break in the trail
as I had clouds dim the mid portion of the luminosity exposures. The
other asteroid is hard to find. It is above the nebula, left and up
from the very bright star above and a bit right of the nebula's center.
It appears nearly star-like as it moved only 3.5" of arc during the
luminosity exposures. You will see hints of the RGB exposures to its
left. Those are the best way to tell it from a star. It was moving
down and to the right during the exposure. I took the color frames
first so they trail the main asteroid image. It is (129774) 1999 JM5
and is also magnitude 18.3 but appears far brighter because nearly all
of its light fell on the same part of the sensor so the image built up
rather than being spread out as for most asteroids. No it didn't stop
orbiting the sun and thus is about to fall in on us. This lack of
motion is an illusion as we are moving the same direction as it is at
about the same speed. We are also moving away from it at high speed but
that motion can't be detected on a two dimension image.

I've seen this nebula called the "Fox Face Nebula". I'm afraid I don't
see the resemblance. Maybe the face of some beast who just ate
something that tasted awful and thus now has a very contorted grimace on
its face. Or maybe its a gargoyle. A house a couple blocks from where
I lived in Nebraska had gargoyles as part of its brick work. One looked
a lot like this nebula.

The blue "spear" of light coming in from the top left of center is just
a blue star that hit the edge of my imaging sensor.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME
Image scale 1" per pixel


Rick
--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".

Rick Johnson wrote:

I've seen this nebula called the "Fox Face Nebula". I'm afraid I don't
see the resemblance.

Don't worry, neither do I. Great image tho!
--
Adriano
34°14'11.7"N

Thanks for posting Rick, this is a new object to me. Never seen it before
(or at least I don't remember).

Stefan

"Rick Johnson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
ter.com...
NGC 1788 is a Orion Nebula, not THE Orion Nebula but it certainly is a
nebula in Orion. We normally think of emission nebula when mention is
made of Orion but it has many reflection nebula as well. This one is
rather unknown however. It has a dark nebula running through it, Lynds
1616. It is likely part of NGC 1788 rather than something separate well
in front of it. The nebula appears to be part of the same huge
molecular cloud that is responsible for THE Orion Nebula, M42-43. At
least its distance is about the same at 1300 light years. Normally only
the bright central part is thought of as being the nebula but as you can
see it really is far larger, larger than my field of view.

There are two asteroids in the image, in the upper left corner is
(54443) 2000 MT5 at magnitude 18.3. It is moving mostly up in the image
and looks a bit like an edge on galaxy. There is a break in the trail
as I had clouds dim the mid portion of the luminosity exposures. The
other asteroid is hard to find. It is above the nebula, left and up
from the very bright star above and a bit right of the nebula's center.
It appears nearly star-like as it moved only 3.5" of arc during the
luminosity exposures. You will see hints of the RGB exposures to its
left. Those are the best way to tell it from a star. It was moving
down and to the right during the exposure. I took the color frames
first so they trail the main asteroid image. It is (129774) 1999 JM5
and is also magnitude 18.3 but appears far brighter because nearly all
of its light fell on the same part of the sensor so the image built up
rather than being spread out as for most asteroids. No it didn't stop
orbiting the sun and thus is about to fall in on us. This lack of
motion is an illusion as we are moving the same direction as it is at
about the same speed. We are also moving away from it at high speed but
that motion can't be detected on a two dimension image.

I've seen this nebula called the "Fox Face Nebula". I'm afraid I don't
see the resemblance. Maybe the face of some beast who just ate
something that tasted awful and thus now has a very contorted grimace on
its face. Or maybe its a gargoyle. A house a couple blocks from where
I lived in Nebraska had gargoyles as part of its brick work. One looked
a lot like this nebula.

The blue "spear" of light coming in from the top left of center is just
a blue star that hit the edge of my imaging sensor.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME
Image scale 1" per pixel


Rick
--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".