M78 and Reflecting Dust Clouds in Orion

[marco]

Hi all and happy new year! I have posted a new image of the interstellar dust clouds and bright nebulae area of M78. This was a long sought shot that for several reasons had to postpone, enough to say that I started collecting light of this area 2 years ago and completed it only recently.
I like M78 because it is very colorful and rich of features, gasses, dust, emission nebulae, reflection nebulae etc..
The link:

M78 and Reflecting Dust Clouds in Orion (http://www.glitteringlights.com/Images/Nebulae/i-hLvXxvd/A)

Exposure was pretty long, more than 21 hours of light through 5 filters. I hope you will enjoy the view. Details on the image. As usual at the bottom right of the page you can select the resolution of display to the original size.

Clear skies
Marco

[strongmanmike]

Beautiful rendition of this area King Marco, one of the finest M78's I have seen and perhaps your best (or at least my favourite) ever image to date - a big call that I know as you have so many :). The variations in colour is superb..and the stars?...they are peeeerfect :D :thumbsup:

Mike

[RickS]

That is spectacular, Marco! It is a fantastic area and you've captured and processed it beautifully.

[gregbradley]

Beautiful Marco.

It is a lovely area with a rich gamut of colours and features.

Greg.

[marco]

Thanks Greg, definitely Orion is a real mine of objects of any hue!



Thanks Rick



Master Mike, my honor ;) Hehe, stars are round as they should be, yes, thanks for appreciating :P

Clear skies
Marco

[alpal]

Hi Marco,
that's a feast for the eyes - your standard is so high.
How do you do it?

cheers
Allan

[SpaceNoob]

Amazing! Well done Marco, fantastic image. :D

[RobF]

Stunning work Marco. I just can't believe how great this one looks. So much detail, but the colours very aesthetically pleasing too. I'd only give it 12 out of 10 though :P

[SkyViking]

Oooh! Aaah! What a superb piece of work Marco, and M78 is one of my favourite nebulae too. Stunning colours and details throughout and processing is spot on as usual, it is a really breathtaking image. Well done!

[nebulosity.]

That is absolutely breathtaking Marco :thumbsup: :jawdrop:

Jo

[Kunama]

.............. Speechless ...............

[multiweb]

That's a superb fiedl Marco. Very rich and extensive. Colors galore. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

stunning - i dont recall ever seeing such a deep shot as this. rich and colourful

[allan gould]

This image shows how much most of us don't get in our images. Long subs and immaculate processing as usual Marco has produced the best image of this area I've seen.
Really impressive.
Allan

[marco]

Thanks Allan. In truth big part of the merit is to the very dark skies and long exposures, despite my aperture is quite limited (140mm) going deep on each channel permits to stretch a lot keeping the overall noise quite low.. than some good passes on Pixinsight and PS do the rest ;)



Thanks Chris!



Thanks Rob :) Details are ok for my FL resolution, what actually makes the image looking very detailed in reality is the contrast on each color channel that trick the eye :)



Thanks Rolf!



Thanks Jo



:) Thanks Matt



Thanks Marc, in fact this part of the sky is very colorful, I am particular delighted by the different hues of dust (brown, blue and yellow) you can spot here and there, amazing mine of objects this constellation!



Thanks David!



Thanks Allan, as you correctly pointed out, going deep under truly deep skies makes a lot of difference! With the SQM I installed on site, I have on moonless nights consistently readings above 22 mag/" with best nights above 22.3, i.e. the sky gets as dark as it can be down there. This makes an immense difference when it comes to s/n of each subframe..

Clear skies
Marco

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Can only add my congratulations on this one Marco!

Just superb!:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsu p:

Cheers,

Justin.

[dutch2]

Fantastic detail and gorgeous colours.
Well done.:thumbsup:

[IanP]

>22 is b!@@#$ dark ..
The image is just S U P E R :thumbsup:
S U P E R :thumbsup:
S U P E R :thumbsup:

[pluto]

Absolutely stunning!! :prey2:

[LucasB]

Well done Marco. What an awesome shot! Love the colours.:thumbsup:
Lucas

[Tony_]

Another superb image Marco!
The nebulosity in the Orion area is amazing at these long exposures.

Regards,
Tony.

[astronobob]

Extraordinary Marco, you really pick up some awesome patches of sky ! !
A truly colourful peice here, facinating to wonder through it.
A beautiful astro-image indeed :thumbsup:

[sjastro]

Beautiful image Marco.

Steven

[cybereye]

Wow Marco - beautiful! :thumbsup:

I've been waiting patiently for the clouds to clear to have a go at this object myself but to no avail. When they finally do clear I'm going to have a hard time getting anything close to your image...

Auguri,
Mario

[stevous67]

Marco, outstanding :bowdown:

Very enjoyable to look through.

Can I ask a question on the subs, i was just wondering your sub-exposure times for the LRGB?

Thanks Marco.

Steve :thumbsup:

[Ross G]

An amazing photo Marco.

Great colour.

Great detail.

Great composition.

Love it!

Ross.

[iceman]

That's quite superb! Amazing view.

It's now IOTW (http://www.iceinspace.com.au).

[rcheshire]

Beautiful Marco. A real treat.

[David Fitz-Henr]

A spectacular image Marco; well deserved IOTW :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[LewisM]

I have never had image envy before. I now do. Freud would be happy :)

[Ross G]

Congratulations on IOTW Marco.

Well deserved...an excellent and beautiful photo!

Ross.

[Paul Haese]

Very nice image Marco. I like really like the way you blend your data. I did this target several years ago now and did a similar amount of exposure but did not do Ha. Your process has a unique look and one that I find very pleasing. Well done.

[marco]

I have been away for a while so sorry for reply so late. Thanks guys for the appreciation! I am really happy you liked this image of a very classic object :)



Hi Steve, thanks! I standarized 10 mins for all LRGB subs, it seems enough to keep with my system and sky conditions the readout noise low enough to be mostly eliminated during the stacking. On the other side I have to push to 30 mins each Ha and OIII subframe otherwise even if I stack lots of images still get the final image is very noisy.



Thanks Mike, what a honor!

Thanks again everybody for the kind comments!

Clear skies
Marco