If it's under the middle star of Orion's belt, it will be visible from Texas at some point in the night. Orion is completely visible in northern hemisphere evenings this time of year, even as far north as my location in Minnesota. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /><br /><br />It sounds to me like you're observing the best northern-hemisphere nebula in the entire sky: the Great Nebula in Orion, sometimes just called the Orion Nebula. The darker the skies, the better you can see it; it is not always visible in light-polluted skies, although it does a surprisingly good job of fighting the glare in some cities if the skies are especially clear. (It's that bright, in other words.) The noted astronomer Charles Messier designated it #42 on his chart of fuzzy objects that were not comets. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> So it's also called M-42.<br /><br />Here's a gorgeous image of it, quite possibly the best ever made. You will not see this with the naked eye; human eyes just aren't sensitive enough. This is basically a very long exposure made by combining multiple images.<br /><br />
Orion Nebula: The Hubble View <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em> -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>