M78 Nebula

The nebula M78 is a reflection nebula in the constellation Orion. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1780 and included by Charles Messier in his catalog of comet-like objects that same year.

M78 is the brightest diffuse reflection nebula of a group of nebulae that include NGC 2064, NGC 2067 and NGC 2071. This group belongs to the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex and is about 1,600 light years distant from Earth.

M78 involves two stars of 10th magnitude that are responsible for making the cloud of dust in M78 visible by reflecting their light. (dixit Wikipedia)

This photo was taken from my garden with a scope (Newtonian 200/1000), my old mount (EQ6) and a CCD camera (Atik One 6.0), in black and white with R,G,B and L filters, for a total of 2.5 hours exposure in January 2016.

Technical detail of the photo here: http://www.astrobin.com/236394/

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