Casper Nebula, M78

December 2022

Imaging: TS80 apo, ZWO ASI2600MC (100 gain, -10C), Neo/L'Enh
Subs: Neo 316x60s (5h), L'Enh 55x180s (2h), darks, flats, and darkflats
Software: NINA, Phd2, PixInsight, BlurXT, NoiseXT, StarXT

(Additional notes below)

Gallery

Notes

Messier 78, also known as Casper the Friendly Ghost nebula, is a reflection nebula in the Orion constellation. It is just off to the side of the more famous Orion and Horsehead nebulae. According to Wikipedia, it is the brightest reflection nebula among a group of nebulae. This entire complex is about 1350 LYs from Earth.

This was my astrophotography forum's target of the month which is the reason for me targeting this relatively unknown object. It is a time-consuming target to capture from my location, with it only visible for about 1 hour every night between two sets of trees. This is actually a composite of regular RGB imaging (like you get from a regular DSLR) and dualband imaging to capture the Ha. The addition of the Ha is what shows the bright red in the upper left. One visually appealing aspect of this target is some dark nebula in the periphery that would show as blacker than the background sky in good images. Unfortunately, it is impossible to capture that from my bright Bortle 8 skies, though one can see the hints of this here.

Equipment wise, there was a change with this target. I have now upgraded to a ZWO asi2600mc astrocamera. This camera is very similar to asi533mc that I have been using since last June, but the sensor is much bigger (APS-C size like in my Canon DSLR). This allows me to capture a larger FOV without needing to do a mosaic.