Part of the Orion complex, 1,350 light years from Earth in the constellation of the same name, this 8 light year wide area of dust and gas reflects light back towards Earth, creating a blue /white light, and one of the brightest such reflective nebula's in our skies, although sadly still out of range of the naked eye, other parts of the Orion complex are not.

The dark areas are doing the opposite, they are obscuring the light behind them and are known as dark nebula.

The red areas are bodies of hydrogen excited by the UV light coming from the new born stars and glowing this colour.

pulling you begin to get an idea of the sheer size of the Orion structure which holds many catalogue objects.

Main Orion constellation with the Orion nebula (M42), de Mairans nebula (M43), Horsehead nebula (IC 434), Flame nebula (NGC 2024) and a faint molecular cloud.