Sunday, Jun 15, 2025

The Messier Nebula 78 (also known as M78 or NGC 2068) is a reflection nebula in the constellation of Orion. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1780 and included by Charles Messier in his catalog of objects that same year. M78 is the brightest diffuse reflection nebula in a group of nebulae that includes NGC 2064, NGC 2067, and NGC 2071. M78 is easily visible in small telescopes as a diffuse smudge and includes two magnitude 10 stars. These two stars, HD 38563A and HD 38563B, are responsible for making the dust cloud in M78 visible by reflecting their light. The image is composed of 250 lights of 300” each, around 20 hours of exposure.