Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Orion (Ori)  ·  Contains:  LBN 938  ·  LBN 939  ·  M 78  ·  NGC 2064  ·  NGC 2067  ·  NGC 2068  ·  NGC 2071  ·  VdB59  ·  VdB60
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Messier 78 - Casper, Timothy Martin
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Messier 78 - Casper

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Messier 78 - Casper, Timothy Martin
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Messier 78 - Casper

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Description

This is not a great image of M78.

We battled hard for this image. It’s a target we both love. But we didn’t get near what we were hoping for. Since this is a reflection nebula, it’s not something we can shoot very easily from the extremely light-polluted skies of North Dallas. This data is from early March and was gathered in the horse pasture behind a friend's cabin near the rim of Palo Duro Canyon. It was cold, windy, my hardware was giving us fits, and we only had a couple of hours to get this. I’m also told that there might have been one or two too many beers consumed by the technicians that night—but I find that hard to believe.

The data was basically a train wreck, but I summoned all the processing lore I’ve learned from Dr. Ron Brecher, and on the third attempt, this image arose from an almost certain demise.

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