The Lambda Orionis Ring, seen in visible light, is an extensive but faint structure. Its most prominent element is an apparent crescent running down its western side (from which it takes the name of the 'Angefish Nebula'). For scale, the two prominent stars near the bottom of the frame are Betelgeuse and Bellatrix, the two bright northern stars of Orion. Lambda Orionis itself (also called Meissa) is at the centre of the image. The structure of the ring is much more evident in infrared light (a view of which is available by dropping down the controls on the image and choosing 'Akari FIS Color' from the list). Imagery provided by Aladin sky atlas
* The nebula's 'integrated' magnitude represents its apparent brightness across the area of sky covered by the ring. A star of magnitude +3.5, seen as a point source, would be relatively bright, and certainly visible to the naked eye. The Lambda Orions Ring, however, spreads over a significant area, covering a region more than six degrees across (and therefore more than a thirty square degrees in area). Across such a wide region, the object's magnitude is significantly diffused, so that the nebula is difficult to detect at all in visible light.
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