M78 over 2 years

[Carole]

I took the image from Friday night HaLRGB and combined it with the luminance taken at Kelling Heath and Cairds in 2015 which was a much smaller FOV as taken with the Atik314L

So herewith a closer view of the nebula.

2 hours luminance 2015
5 Hours HaLRGB 2017

So total 7 hours, with almost 4 hours of luminance.  (I got a further 1 hour luminance on Sunday night but haven't got around to adding that yet).

[The Thing]

That is turning into something really worthwhile Carole, the detail in the dust is amazing. When you get to three years effort it'll be Hubbletastic

[Carole]

Thank you Duncan.

Carole

[MarkS]

You've now got plenty of detail and plenty of dust.  It's looking really good.

Mark

[Carole]

Thank you Mark, I do have 1 more hour of Luminance to add which I shall add to the widefield one. 

Carole

[ApophisAstros]

What an image , WOW.
Roger

[Carole]

Thanks Roger

[The Thing]

Each time I look at this close up the more I see, good job Carole!

A few years back we'd have been happy to see the reflection nebula and the emission nebula with a smudge of dust making dark bits. Recently dust has become 3D and textured, you can almost see it roiling about. Is that down to processing software, optics, sensors? Or just an awareness that it's there and it should be processed to reveal it as you would the glowing and shining gas.

[Carole]

I am sure its a lot to do with the sensors Duncan, also processing of course, but no amount of processing skills are going to reveal data that is not clearly captured in the first place. I am totally sold on the mono camera  I am not sure - unless one is using the camera that Mark uses - that a OSC camera would show all that detail.

Thanks for your comments Duncan.

Carole