- NGC 2112 and Herschel's Region 27
NGC 2112 is an open cluster lying along the edge of the Winter Milky Way in the eastern part of Orion. Visually, it covers an area around 18 arc-min across with a magnitude of 9.1. It contains around 50 member stars and lies at a distance of around 2600 LY.
NGC 2112 lies along the large supernova remnant (SNR) called Barnard's Loop (Sharpless 276). This feature forms an arc around 15 degrees in length curving through the eastern portion of Orion, with its apparent center roughly coinciding with Orion's Belt. What we see in Barnard's Loop is the eastern portion of the expanding SNR shell glowing in red Hα light. The Loop can easily be captured in wide-angle images of Orion, and is bright enough to be seen with the unaided eye under dark sky conditions. My image of NGC 2112 shows one of the brighest segments of this object, designated as Herschel's Region 27. It was observed visually by William Herschel in 1786. Region 27 is bright enough to be easily seen in a small telescope or big binoculars under good sky conditions.
If my image has an overall reddish tinge, it is because the whole region glows with Hα emissions. Longer exposures show Barnard's Loop extends across the area of my image and bathes it in a soft reddish glow.
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