Messier 78 (March 2016)

This area is one reason I signed up with Deep Sky West.  There is no way to collect this kind of data from where I live, and I don't have the means to travel to a site like that one.  So I receive the raw data from them, just as if it came from my own scope and camera, then I process it.

This bit of nebulosity is called  M78, a space in the constellation Orion northeast of the three belt stars and just southwest of the Spook Nebula, LDN 1622.  I've always been fascinated by this area.  The red nebulosity near the left is emission, but the rest is just reflection from the young, blue-white stars in the area.  Of course, new stars are forming here.

This image is a combination of many hours of exposure: 22x900" Luminance; 16x900" Blue; 19x900" Green; 18x900" Red.  This is from DSW's FSQ rig.  Here is the Luminance stack, with some processing:

M78, Leo I, and Hickson 44 (the NGC 3190 group)

On the night of January 29, I set up the 6" f/5 newt with the Astro Tech Coma Corrector and the SXVF-H9.  I wanted a shot of Leo I.  But I set up early, and Leo I was not up yet.  M78 was positioned just right, so I shot a couple of hours.  Leo I came up, and I began to see wispy clouds.  Oh, bother.  I went ahead, anyway.  After a couple of hours, the scope needed a meridian flip. I flipped over and centered Leo I and found an annoying reflection in the the center of the image.  It was Regulus, I'm betting, but I have no idea where the reflection was coming from within the telescope.  I obviously have some study to do.  Anyway, there was no way to avoid the reflection that night, so I just moved to another target, one of my favorite galaxy clusters, Hickson 44.  Because of all the moving around, I was only able to get about half the time on each object that I would like, and truthfully M78 needs about ten more hours and a darker sky.  Anyway, here are the three images nonetheless, processed, cropped, and otherwise fixed for best presentation.  No color here; the H9 is a monochrome and I was shooting for luminance, only.  Also, please note that the wispy clouds stayed with me for the rest of the night.

 M78, 17x7', a reflection nebula teaming with new stars about 1300 to 1600 light years distant.

Leo I, 14x7', a small galaxy about 800,000 light years away.  The bright star to the left (south) of the galaxy's location is Regulus.

Hickson 44, 22x7', a galaxy cluster 72 to 111 million light years away.

Telescope: Orion 6" f/5 Imaging Newtonian with GSO Coma Corrector (effectively at f/5.5)
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9
Filter: IDAS-LPS2
Guiding: SX Lodestar, SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, Maxim DL, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX