Sh2-264, The Lambda Orionis Ring, Orion

While this object resides in Orion, it is not nearly as well known to astrophotographers as the "big ticket" objects like M42 or the Horsehead Nebula. This is the Lambda Orionis Ring, Sh2-264, or the Angelfish Nebula - though you'll have to turn the image upside down to this clearly. It is a large cloud of structured emission nebulosity excited by the extremely hot O- and B-type stars, lambda Orionis and neighbours, that form a prominent triangle, the head of the mythical Hunter. The stars and nebula are part of the closest star-forming region to us - the Orion molecular cloud complex. This is how we southerners see this region, with Betelgeuse, the orange star upper right, and blue-white Bellatrix upper left. As you can see, there are many deep sky objects in the relatively wide field of view. Lambda Orionis (or Meissa) lies around 1100 ly away which is a reasonable estimate for the nebula's distance.