Finding M78

[Drummer]

Tried a couple of nights recently with the clear skies to locate M78, Have got Stellarium, but gave up. Is it difficult to locate?? Or is it me!

[Tinker1947]

I found M78 2 nights back use Stellarium and a Telrad its very faint, if you have a camera take a 30 second sub then rinse and repeat in that area

[rory]

hi drummer. its a recent find for me. depending on how dark your skies are, the darker the better. ive seen it twice now and its very very faint in my orange zone and the moon was on its way up. i used low power x31 and averted vision.

there are a group of stars shaped like a hump or hill as you move north from alnitak.

its just slightly left (east) of that group.

0

[rory]

forgot to ask what kit you use ? my views are described through 90mm of apetrure. you may get different responses from the big boys !

[David Smith]

Has taken me a long time to find this object. Finally nailed it just last night! Combination of 20mm Plossl with my 10" scope and using Stellarium and Pocket Sky Atlas to guide me. Started at Alnitak in Orions belt and then hopped to M78 using the finder to locate the correct field and then sweeping the area with the main scope to pick it up. Could not see it in the finder at all (9 x 50).

M78 was still quite small and appeared as two reasonably bright stars surrounded asymmetrically by faint nebulosity.

Hope this helps

[andrew63]

it's not too faint, but you need a good dark sky and low power. In my 4" at 22x it looks like a diffuse comet. But you need to look 'careful' as you may not notice it against the background, and as said a low mag. It might be easier for you to see in binoculars.

Good luck with the search!

andrew

[Drummer]

Thanks fellas. David the Bears said it was two small stars with faint nebulosity, I think I did locate it and hadn't realised it. Was looking for something more pronounced!!

[andrew63]

It sounds very likely as these things are very insignificant at the best of times! This is a good idea of what the field will look like.

Messier 78 - Belt of Venus