M 78 advice!

[Swedeman2013]

Having trouble locating M78 which apparently 3 degrees northeast of Alnitak in Orion. M42 is easy, yet I'm wondering how large and impressive M78 should appear. Any tips? Cheers.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

M78 is one of the harder Messier objects. It is a reflection nebula which means UHC filters and the like won't work at all. I could see it as a diffuse ball of fuzz in my C8 from a suburban site (fairly dark, but by no means perfect). Your 200p should readily be able to reach it if your skies are not too dark. There should be some more, fainter reflection nebulae around it, but I have yet to find those (probably needs darker skies than mine)

[RichieP]

Took me a while to bag this one. But I managed it with six inches from a suburban site.

One way of finding it is to centre on the star Mintaka in the belt, switch off any tracking, and wait 14 minutes for the Earth's rotation to bring it into view.

Sent from my GT-I9305 using Tapatalk

[Mike73]

Its not a amazingly striking object to observe to be honest but as Michael mentioned its all about going somewhere with dark skies.

This sketch of M78 was done with my 16" but I remember seeing it with my old 200p and it looked very similar but obviously fainter.

[NGC 1502]

The sketch in post #4 is a brighter version of what I see with my 10" at a dark site.  It's a real toughie from my backyard, needs a transparent moonless night to see anything at all.

You can always pan down to M42 to get your 'nebula fix'  

Regards, Ed.

[Mike73]

Take your time with M78, really let your eyes relax, get well dark adapted and turn off any red lights but if you still don't see it don't worry, as Ed mentioned skip down to M42 and I bet you'll get your best ever view of M42.

As with many of these faint fuzzies good observing technique is very important no matter what size scope you use. 

[swamp thing]

M78 always looks a bit comet like to me.

It's a fine object from dark skies where it responds well to aperture. From LP sites as said above its a tricky blighter!

Good hunting and clear skies.

[Swedeman2013]

Right you are Ed about the nebula fix! M42 shows up with incredible detail right now. Thanks to everyone for the suggestions, you guys never disappoint and certainly make astronomy more fun for me. Clear skies!

[AndyWB]

I managed to find (if not really see) M78 on Saturday night with my 5" scope from a heavily light polluted site. It was just a fuzzy patch in AV - no detail -  with two stars in it, but actually wasn't too hard to find, navigating from Altinak. I'm looking forward to looking at it with more aperture somewhere actually dark.

And M42 had more detail than I've seen before! It was fantastic.

[AlexB67]

From home this one is touch and go, really depends on the conditions, how high Orion is at that time, certainly I can see some of it on most nights I tried in the 10 inch. Travel a mere 5-10 miles out of town , it will even show up in the 5 inch. The way I locate it usually, sigma ori to the right, and alnitak, imagine a line through that follow it to the left with your telrad or red dot, 4 and a bit degrees or so from alnitak.  You can even use M42 as a reference naked eye, and bend the line down a bit from alnitak. Either way, easy enough to locate once you have seen it first time.

[cotterless45]

That's about it for M78 from town, bit of fluff with 2 stars in it,Nick.

[Paul73]

Took me a while to bag this one. But I managed it with six inches from a suburban site. One way of finding it is to centre on the star Mintaka in the belt, switch off any tracking, and wait 14 minutes for the Earth's rotation to bring it into view.Sent from my GT-I9305 using Tapatalk

Good tip. Star Hopping for couch potatoes!!!

Would never have thought of that as a finding method myself.

Paul

[ollypenrice]

Think you've got problems? Try imaging the damned thing. It's absolutely gorgeous but as coy as you like!

Visually it is, indeed, very cometary.

Olly

[Ibbo!]

I thought I picked this up in the 20x60's at our dark site in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Small fuzzy blob a couple of degrees above  and to east of Alnatak.

Reading this thread I'm not so sure now.

What Olly said about imaging it.

I've tried a few times and failed, perhaps this year..........

Steve

[Swedeman2013]

Found it tonight guys, thanks to the great tips (again). Rather faint really compared to M42 which is exploding right now over here!, yet the longer I stared the more detailed M78 seemed to become. Just having a blast finding new stuff each night.

[rory]

One of the first messiers I found after m42. As so many have said it looked like a faint bit of fluff with some car headlights embedded within. I managed it with my 90mm frac from a fairly light polluted spot. I'm sure I read that m78 is part if that whole arc of neblousity you see in images ( barnyards loop is it ? )

[kerrylewis]

I always find this one difficult unless skies are really dark. One of my books actually describes it as 'bright' so at first I thought that I must be looking in the wrong place. It's anything but bright but the car headlights (as well described above) are fairly obvious and then you can hopefully see some nebulosity around them

[Astralstroll]

Just checked my viewing notes and I spotted it almost a year ago to the day (5th of Dec). It has the comment of v.faint!, but still managed to tease it out of the darkness from my back garden which isn't the darkest place I've viewed from. Hope you see it soon, but prepare for it not being that spectacular.

[rwilkey]

tried, but not found it yet, but will be looking again after inspiration from this thread.  Thanks guys & gals.

[Swedeman2013]

Found it again tonight, looked more impressive actually, gas-dust clouds back lit, nice.

[Swedeman2013]

Mike73, your sketches are incredible, nice work.

[rwilkey]

One of the first messiers I found after m42. As so many have said it looked like a faint bit of fluff with some car headlights embedded within. I managed it with my 90mm frac from a fairly light polluted spot. I'm sure I read that m78 is part if that whole arc of neblousity you see in images ( barnyards loop is it ? )

Barnards Loop I believe haha!