The Great Messier 78 (M78) (Aygen)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Orion (Ori) · Contains: LBN 938 · LBN 939 · M 78 · NGC 2064 · NGC 2067 · NGC 2068 · NGC 2071 · VdB59 · VdB60

The Great Messier 78 (M78)

Messier 78 (M 78), or NGC 2068, is one the brightest reflection nebula in the sky, located in Orion near the celestial equator.

M 78 is easy to locate, about 3° northeast of Alnitak, the easternmost star in Orion's Belt. Small telescopes show it remarkably well, and reveal the two illuminating stars, which appear like a double nucleus in the compact "comet head". These two stars, HD 38563A and HD 38563B, are responsible for making the cloud of dust in M 78 visible. The nebula fans out to the southwest and suggests a faint comet tail.

As a reflection nebula, M 78 is a cloud of interstellar dust which shines by the reflected and scattered light of nearby stars. This celestial marvel is part of the Orion complex, a large cloud of gas and dust centered on the Orion Nebula (M 42), and is about 1,600 light years distant. It is the brightest portion of a vast dust cloud which includes NGC 2024 (the Flame Nebula) near Zeta Orionis, NGC 2071, NGC 2067, and the very faint NGC 2064. All these nebulae are associated with the molecular cloud LDN 1630.

The featured imaged was imaged remotely via a Dreamscope 16” astrograph (my Dream scope !!!!) located in the USA (insight observatory, Pie Town, NM) in LRGB.

CS,
Aygen

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Title: Starless

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	8451984
PixInsight job	8C3GTU77N9SD4WH2O15RCN7YQXKN0F35
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	05h47m07s.40
RA (top/left)	05h49m57s.82
RA (top/right)	05h44m27s.92
RA (bottom/right)	05h44m16s.44
RA (bottom/left)	05h49m46s.25

Dec (center)	+00°12′13″.6
Dec (top/left)	+00°51′19″.1
Dec (top/right)	+00°54′13″.5
Dec (bottom/right)	-00°26′48″.9
Dec (bottom/left)	-00°29′44″.3

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The Great Messier 78 (M78)

The Great Messier 78 (M78)

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