M78 - My Nemesis

[Catanonia]

M78 in Orion has always been my nemesis as it is such a difficult target from my Bortle 6 back yard.

Due to its position, I can only get about 4 hours on it per night.

About 6 years ago I took the 1st image on a SkyWatcher MN190 and it was about 10 hours mono LRGB combination.

Fast forward to last night and 2 hours integration on ZWO 2600 MC Pro OSC and RASA8 in 5min subs I got the following.

Heavily cropped as the scope is only 400mm, but an improvement, but still seriously lacking.

Still my nemesis and can only hope my new 10 inch RC open truss will do it more justice when it arrives.

Edited February 23, 2022 by Catanonia

[Clarkey]

1 hour ago, Catanonia said:

M78 in Orion has always been my nemesis as it is such a difficult target from my Bortle 6 back yard.

Nice image and better than my one attempt so far. (A few subs then canned the idea)

It's always been one I had on my 'to do' list, but I have always left it due to my light pollution problem. I am in Bortle 6, but imaging to the south is the worst area of sky for me. One for a dark sky night.

[Catanonia]

15 minutes ago, Clarkey said:

Nice image and better than my one attempt so far. (A few subs then canned the idea)

It's always been one I had on my 'to do' list, but I have always left it due to my light pollution problem. I am in Bortle 6, but imaging to the south is the worst area of sky for me. One for a dark sky night.

Feel ya pain dude, I HATE and LOVE this target, a real tester of kit, location and skies