I was planning on to collect more data on SH2-222 last night, but decided on M78.  This is my second visit to M78, the first being 13 November 2023.  I lost several images due to airplane, Satellite's, and of course light pollution from our street Lamps and passing automobiles, I do wish the night sky around here was a little less noisy.

However the night turned out to be just fine and this afternoon I purchased what most likely will be my last telescope the ZWO FF130.  I was going to wait for the William Optics FLT 132, BUT THE FF130 is about $2000 cheaper.  Anyway, I will be using it with my AM5 and will have to figure out balancing / using a counter weight.   

Messier 78 (M78) is a reflection nebula located in the northern constellation Orion, the Hunter. M78 is the brightest diffuse reflection nebula in the sky. It has an apparent magnitude of 8.3 and lies at an approximate distance of 1,600 light years from Earth. It has the designation NGC 2068 in the New General Catalogue.

Messier 78 occupies an area of 8 by 6 arc minutes, which corresponds to a linear diameter of about 10 light years. The nebula is pretty easy to find as it is located only about 2 degrees north and 1.5 degrees east of Alnitak, the easternmost star of Orion’s Belt. Alnitak has two other prominent nebulae associated with it: the Horsehead Nebula and the Flame Nebula. M78 is a bit further away from the star than these two.The nebula can easily be seen in large binoculars and small telescopes, which show a hazy, comet-like patch of light with two 10th magnitude stars that illuminate it. M78 is also visible in 10×50 binoculars as a dim patch, but it requires clear, dark skies to be seen.4-inch telescopes will sometimes reveal the haze around M78 and also show the nearby reflection nebula NGC 2071 under good conditions. 8-inch telescopes begin to show the details of M78. A 9th magnitude open cluster, NGC 2112, can be seen about 1.75 degrees east of the nebula. The cluster lies in the background and is some 2,800 distant. The best time of year to observe M78 is during the winter, when Orion is high in the sky.Messier 78 is located in a region of the sky that contains several other nebulae that belong to the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, including NGC 2064, NGC 2067 and NGC 2071. M78 is the brightest reflection nebula in this group.The Orion Complex itself is hundreds of light years across, spreading from the stars of Orion’s Belt all the way to Orion’s Sword. It is one of the brightest and most active star forming regions visible in the sky and contains several famous nebulae, including the Orion Nebula (M42), De Mairan’s Nebula (M43), the bright emission nebula IC 434, which contains the dark Horsehead Nebula, the emission nebula known as Barnard’s Loop, the Flame Nebula, and the large H II region known as the Angelfish Nebula or Lambda Orionis Ring, centred on Meissa (Lambda Orionis).Messier 78 is a reflection nebula, which means that it contains very little ionized gas and merely reflects the light of the nearby stars. Two early B-type 10th magnitude stars in M78, HD 38563A and HD 38563B, are responsible for illuminating the nebula’s dust clouds.Infrared observations of M78 have revealed that at least 192 stars have formed within the molecular cloud associated with the nebula. The cloud is known as Orion B or LDN 1630. The young stars occupy an area of 7 arc minutes of apparent sky.Messier 78 contains about 45 T Tauri variables. These are very young, pre-main sequence stars, typically found near molecular clouds, that are still in the process of contracting to the main sequence. The nebula is also home to about 17 Herbig-Haro objects, small patches of nebulosity that form near young stars when these eject jets of gas which then collide with the nearby dust and gas at high velocities. Herbig-Haro objects are commonly found in star forming regions, with several often forming around a single star. They typically only last for several thousand years before dispersing.