Nice get, Karl
. This is exactly the approach that I like - off the beaten track and tackling stuff that others tend to ignore.
There are many such examples of otherwise lovely nebulae that are forgotten by a much flashier object in the same constellation, in this case there's two, M42 & B33 (the Horse Head). There's a few other such treasures lurking about
:
NGC 3576, the Statue of Liberty Nebula in Carina
NGC 5286, GC in Centaurus
NGC 5189, the Spiral Planetary Nebula in Musca
NGC 6357, the War & Peace Nebula in Scorpius
There's a host of others that are very pretty on their own, just largely unknown due to a showier big brother object. I love chasing these down too
Alex.