Orion Nebula

Photograph of a pastel drawing of the central part of the Orion Nebula (M42) from observations by Prof. E.S. Holden and M. Etienne Leopold Trouvelot (artist) in 1875, using telescopes of the United States Naval Observatory at Foggy Bottom, Washington, DC.

Photograph showing a pastel drawing of the Orion Nebula made by Etienne Leopold Trouvelot (1827-1895), a French artist and the astronomer, Prof. E.S. Holden (1846-1914), together produced this sketch in 1875. It is based on observations made at the United States Observatory at Foggy Bottom in Washington using the 26-inch Clarke refracting telescope. The Orion nebula, visible to the naked eye as a hazy patch, was first recorded being observed with a telescope in 1610 by Frenchman, Nicolas Claude Fabri de Peiresc. A large glowing cloud of hydrogen gas where new stars form, the nebula lies at a distance of some 1500 light-years.