The Orion Nebula, catalogued as Messier 42 or NGC 1976, is one of the brightest nebulae in the sky, and one of the nearest star-forming regions to Earth. It is rewarding in telescopes of every size, and is perhaps the most studied and photographed object in the sky. M 42 is visible to the naked eye as a hazy patch surrounding Theta Orionis, the middle star in the Sword of Orion, just south of Orion’s Belt.