The Orion Nebula (Review)
The Orion Nebula (Review)
e an Orion go back a couple of years. It was one of the first objects I’d pursued with my new scope – after the moon and planets. And there was so much to see – the brilliant belt, the smoky glow of Betelgeuse. But it was when I tracked down Orion’s star-splashed dirk that I got my biggest surprise.
At the midpoint, I stopped. There was a clear thumbprint on my view of one cluster. Must have fumbled it while getting the eyepiece out. Annoying. But when I started to track clear I got my real surprise – the splotch moved with the stars! It wasn’t a thumbprint at all – it was a visible nebula, a sprawling gas cloud that spanned stars!
I viewed it for an hour, perhaps two, before going indoors to lose my night-vision but gain my computer reference. And that’s when I learned about the Orion Nebula – 1300 light years distant, an amazing sight in the night sky.
So, when The Orion Nebula appeared in a downsizing box at the local astronomy club, I had to pick it up. It’s a great book, the author being one of the project managers on the Hubble, a wonderful tell-all star book. But be prepared. O’Dell explains everything about the nebula – from how molecules work to how stars form and ignite, how they interact with their left-over materials, the nature and idiosyncrasies of star dust. While a lot of this passed in one eye and out the other, enough stuck. I now understand what a dynamic place the Orion Nebula is, with shock waves pocking the face of the cloud, with ionization burning across it like grass burning in a dry field. Using infrared, the scientists were able to discover what lay beyond the cloud’s veil, which is in itself amazing and inspiring.
So, a grand book about one of the most stunning sights in night sky, something so amazing it can be seen with binoculars and a clear night. A good read that shows me just how much more I have to learn in this hobby of pretty lights and cold nights.