Hi Fellows,
In the last three months I tried several times to capture this wonderful nebula using my monochrome CCD without success because the weather conditions. The nights started just great and 2 hours late was raining... welcome summer!!!
Then I decide to change my strategy and use my OSC CCD for not to have to do 4 captures. In one particular night, sky kept great all night long and I was able to capture 22 frames of 15 minutes each of M-78 and the result is presented below.
The image, in spite of the 22x15 minutes and the fast scope I used (TMB 92 f/5.5), is still noisy what shows how dim this nebula is. It is so dim and at the same time so beautiful, a mix of reflection and emission nebula in a short field of view.
I will be always targeting this nebula for a better image.
The link for the a largest view is here:
http://multiply.com/slideshow/nandopg:photos:3/53
Fernando