The first drawing of the Orion Nebula M42

The first known drawing of the Orion Nebula, created by Giovanni Batista Hodierna before 1654 from Palma di Montechiaro, Sicily (Hodierna 1654).

The three stars shown within the nebula are probably Theta1, Theta2 A, and Theta2 B Orionis. They are very probably not the three brightest Trapezium stars, as Serio et.al. (1985) have proposed, first because the stars depicted better match the location of those listed, and second because Hodierna's instruments could have hardly resolved the Trapezium, which he probably saw as one star, Theta1.

References

• Hodierna, 1654. De systemate orbis cometici, deque admirandis coeli characteribus [About the systematics of the cometary orbit, and about the admirable objects of the sky]. Palermo. Here p. 19. Available online. Also see the relevant page 19.
• G.F. Serio, L. Indorato and P. Nastasi, 1985. G.B. Hodierna's Observations of Nebulae and his Cosmology. Journal of the History of Astronomy, Vol. XVI, No. 45, p. 1-36 (February 1985).

Last Modification: April 12, 2006