DescriptionImages

Object name: NGC2071

Designation(s): NGC2071,

NGC 2071 is a reflection nebula just north of the far more famous M78 some 1300 to 1600 light-years away in Orion.

The nebula houses many protoplanetary disks. One is the smallest known. It is seen by radio not optical telescopes like mine.
http://www.nrao.edu/pr/1998/essdisk/
Information on other young stellar objects can be found in this paper:
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1111/1111.5469v1.pdf

While NGC 2071 appears to be part of the same molecular cloud as M78 (poking its head in at the bottom of my image) I'm finding most papers on NGC 2071 saying its distance is 1300 light-years while M78 papers put it at 1600 light-years. It could be due to the measurement of 2071 dating to 1982.

The nebula was first recorded by William Herschel on January 1, 1786. It is in the second H400 observing program.

I wanted more data on this one but after two months of lousy skies in this part of the sky I gave up.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10', RGB=2x10'x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME