M78 - Reflection Nebula in Orion

[Emanuele]

Dear all,

on Feb. 20th my club had its monthly member trek to our dark sky imaging site: Area 51.

After fiddling around for 2 hours with Maxim and trying to understand, still, how it works (my gosh how many settings does that program have?!!?) I slewed to M78 and started imaging it.

Turns out that there's some noise problem in the data, and unfortunately nothing much can be done. I have tried my best in processing what I have but I will have to image this one again.

Please go easy on me: this is my first dark nebula and my second light at CCD imaging!

20 x 6 minutes, no darks.

EM200 - Guided with Mini Borg 50
Pentax 125 SDP
SXVF-M25C

Information and bigger image (1500 px - please click on the thumbnail)
http://www.backyardskies.com/BackyardSkies/M78_Information.html

Smaller preview:

[spearo]

Emanuele,
looks great
the nebulosity and dark lanes are nicely defined
tracking and focus seem spot on

well done
frank

[Paul Haese]

Lovely image Emanuelle, this is on my capture list.

[Hagar]

Another very respectable image. Contrast, focus and framing all done very nicely. I think you are being a little critical of your own images.

Nice capture.

[gregbradley]

Mate, that is a stunning first image. I think you'll find general agreement here that if our first CCD images looked that nice we'd be rapt.

I wrote a longer reply on your other image that gives some tips for one shot colour cameras.

M78 is a quite dark and dim dusty object. A tough target for a one shot colour camera and relatively short total exposure time.

One tip (easy to say not so easy to apply) is think in terms of 4 hours total exposure time as a minimum for virtually any image and 6 hours for galaxies.
Especially for a one shot colour camera that usually are noisy in the dim areas. Even a bright object will look considerably better with several hours of total exposure time.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Not sure if I have comented before but that is some great kit you have there Emanuele :thumbsup: What's your opinion of the Pentax?

You may be able to get some more out of this data set but I agree with Greg, unfortunately with our punny apertures us amateurs just have to shoot for ages :sadeyes:.. be nice to have some serious glass :prey:

Never the less a nice piece of work with some lovely rich colours.

Mike

[toryglen-boy]

i would be well proud of that. well done

;)

[Rigel003]

Beautiful image, Emanuele, and a your web site is very attractive.

[prokyon]

Hi Emanuele,

nice shot! Sharp and beautiful colors :thumbsup:

cheers

werner

[RB]

A very nice image indeed Emanuele, well done on your first dark nebula.
The noise you talk about is probably coming from Area 51 no doubt. :lol:

[atalas]

Nice work mate!

[Omaroo]

Another great image Emanuele. Well done! :thumbsup:

While it is a great image, I just have to say that your website is beautifully constructed, very informative and clean-styled. Very refreshing to see - and being involved in that side of the business I've seen a few.

[Bassnut]

Top work for a 2nd image, very smooth. And tricky different......everything, object, gear, web site.......interesting.

[Emanuele]

Thank you so much to all of you guys!!! :)