M78 - Nebula in Orion
The brightest diffuse reflection nebulosity in the sky, often overlooked in favor of the Horsehead Nebula and the Orion Nebula (M42).


  • RA: 5:47
  • Dec: 0:03
  • Size: 8x6'
  • Magnitude: 8.3
  • Distance: 1600 ly
  • Constellation: Orion
  • Millennium Star Atlas: Vol. I, pp. 253-4
  • Scope: 12.5" Ritchey-Chretien at f/9
  • Autoguider: unguided
  • Sky conditions: excellent seeing, good transparency.
  • Film: FLI Dream Machine CCD
  • Exposure: 15x30 seconds L, 7,6,6x60 seconds R,G,B
  • Date: 11-10-01

Talk about bleeding for a shot. No less than two batteries keeled over during the course of the evening and I was finally reduced to hooking up the camera's AC inverter to the car battery (still inside the car) while chasing the final color frames as the sun rose. Phew!

This image has been scaled down to 90% for better presentation.


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