Telescope: 16″ f3.75 Dream Scope
Camera: FLI ML16803
Mount: ASA DDM85
Exposure: 11 hours (70x300s L + 3x20x300s RGB)
Date: October 2017
Location: Southern Alps, France
M78 is an often forgotten nebula in the constellation of Orion. It’s a reflection nebula that’s part of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, a large cloud of gas and dust centered on the famous Orion Nebula (M42) and De Mairan’s Nebula (M43). Also included in this grouping are NGC 2064, NGC 2067 and NGC 2071 and other nebulae. Reflection nebulae like M78 are clouds of interstellar dust that shine due to reflected and scattered light from nearby stars. Some 17 Herbig–Haro objects are known in M78. Herbig–Haro (HH) objects are small patches of nebulosity associated with newly born stars, and are formed when narrow jets of gas ejected by those stars collide with nearby clouds of gas and dust at speeds of several hundred kilometers per second. Similar HH objects are also present in NGC1333, one of my earlier posts.
Detail of the area with Herbig-Haro objects