M 78. NGC 2068 and NGC 2071

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Messier 78 is a “classic”. It belongs to a catalog that contains many of the most beautiful objects in the night sky. This image displays some different nebulae: Just at the center is M 78, a reflection nebula that was discovered by Pierre Mechain in 1780. On the upper left, NGC 2071, another reflection nebula and, across the image, several dark nebulae like the Orion BDN Complex, BDN 206-16, LDN 1627, P134 and others. In the image, also two oddities can be spotted: the McNeil’s Nebula and HH24.

The McNeil’s Nebula was discovered photographically by Julian McNeil in January 2004. No signs of this nebula were spotted before September 2003. Although it was considered a totally new nebula associated to a star (IRAS 05436-0007 located at the tip of the triangular shaped nebula) that had bursted into brilliance after having accreted enough gas and having ignited. It is now, more prudently, considered a variable nebula. This nebula is located at the center of the lower right quarter. Find below a comparison of a previous image, taken with The 4m Mayall Telescope at Kitt Peak (below, before the “eruption”), an image taken with the 2.2m ESO telescope at La Silla (above, after the “eruption”) and a cropped section of this image (right)

The Herbig-Haro object HH24 is the anchor shaped reddish nebulosity close to the lower right corner.

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