That's one of my favorite regions in the night sky. Lots of intricacy nebulae with many luminosity and color nuances.
Took me a very long time to process this image since it has only 2 hours of total exposure time. I took the challenge to carve for the most faint nebulosity available in it's luminance channel. Which, btw, had 2 (out of a total of 3) subs with (highly) problematic satellite trails.
Filters and exposure time:
.Luminance : 3x600"
.Red: 3x600"
.Green: 3x600"
.Ble: 3x600"
Total exposure: 2 hours
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M78 is the brightest diffuse reflection nebula of a group of nebulae that includes NGC 2064, NGC 2067 and NGC 2071. This group belongs to the Orion B molecular cloud complex and is about 1,350 light-years distant from Earth.
A reflection nebula is created when light from a star is scattered or reflected off a nearby dust cloud. M78 is located approximately 1,600 light-years away from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 8.
M78 is easily found in small telescopes as a hazy patch and involves two stars of 10th and 11th magnitude. These two B-type stars, HD 38563 A and HD 38563 B, are responsible for making the cloud of dust in M78 visible by reflecting their light.
[wikipédia]
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