M78, M48, and Jupiter

Imaging M78 proved to be much more challenging than I than anticipated.  Winter in New England always makes it difficult, however, there were some additional issues.  M78 is a reflection nebula in the constellation of Orion some 1600 light years from us.  This object (magnitude 8.3) is not visible with the naked eye and certainly not under the light polluted sky of southern Connecticut.  Even with my telescope, the Orion ED 80, I could not see it which made it especially difficult. It did not become visible until I set the time exposure to 30 seconds using a light pollution filter (Astronomik CLS).

M78 - Diffuse Nebula
Difficulties:
Day1 - I hoped to get 2.5 hrs, manged to get 1.25 hrs!
1) Could not find nebula as the goto was not dead on.  Tried to locate for 15 minutes and I actually gave up.
2) Tried to locate other objects like the Horsehead nebula when I realized the goto was not tracking well and the stars were streaking a bit.
3) Realigned the mount and went back to M78.  I was about to give up again as I saw nothing with the finderscope but took a 30 s exposure anyway.  At first I did not see anything but kept looking and saw a faint white spot in the center.  I was dead on. YAY!
4) Tried to use PHD2 for autoguiding but once again it gave me an error.  Something about not finding the declination...Thank goodness for PHD the original.

Day2 - I hoped to get 1.5 hr, managed to get 30 min of usable images!
1) Was able to locate the nebula, however, it was a little breezy and the stars were streaking too much.
2) Got everything re-aligned, perfect tracking tripped over the power cord and did not think anything was wrong as it appeared to be plugged in.  Connected the autoguider and noticed stars moving through the view.  I was scared as I thought my mount was broke. The problem was the cigarette connection came loose when I tripped over it.
3) Re-aligned again (I'm getting good at this)and was dead on.  FINALLY!

Results:

Image 1 - DSS_PS_LR_neutralized_cropped

Image 2 - DSS_PS_LR_neutralized

Image 3 - DSS_PS_LR

Image 4 - DSS_PS

M78
Location: Monroe, CT
Date/Time: Day 1: 2/28/16 10:17 pm, Day 2: 2/29/16 10:17 pm
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i
Filter: Astronomik CLS 2"
Telescope: Orion ED80 80mm f/7.5 Apochromatic Refractor Telescope
Focal Length: 600mm
f/7.5

Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G GoTo Telescope Mount

Autoguiding: QHY-5L-II-M attached to and Orion Short Tube 80mm

Exposure: Day 1: 16-300s,1-163s (`1 hr 22 min), Day 2: 4-300s, 3-180s, 1-45, 1-30s (`30 min)
ISO: 800
Post Processing: Photoshop, Lightroom, DSS, Backyard EOS

The images do show the central core well but not the entire complex seen on other images. You can there is a slight haze around the image but I could bring it out with anymore processing.  The long and short of it is, I need more data for a better image, however, I am happy with what I got and this will have to do for now.

M48 - Open Cluster
After M78 set behind the trees, I moved to the open cluster M48 1,500 light years away in the Hydra constellation.  M48 was much easier to image compared to M78.  For one, you can see this with a pair of binoculars and with the telescope so you know when your on it. Also, you don't need a filter for star clusters and shorter sub exposures are fine, in fact you autoguiding is not necessary if the alignment is good.  I thought I was done at this point, however, then Jupiter came up.

Image 1 - DSS_PS_LR

Image 2 - DSS_PS_crop_LR

Image 3 - DSS_PS_crop_LR_crop

M48
Location: Monroe, CT
Date/Time: 2/28/16 11:25 pm
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i
Filter: none
Telescope: Orion ED80 80mm f/7.5 Apochromatic Refractor Telescope
Focal Length: 600mm
f/7.5

Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G GoTo Telescope Mount

Autoguiding: QHY-5L-II-M attached to and Orion Short Tube 80mm

Exposure: 21-90s
ISO: 800
Post Processing: Photoshop, DSS, Backyard EOS

Jupiter and Moons
After the session and partially breaking down I noticed Jupiter rising over the trees of my backyard so I went ahead and took some quick photos.  I already put my computer and camera away but went back for the camera.  The image is actually a combination of a short exposure (1/500s) image for Jupiter and a longer exposure (1/10s) image for the moons.  This turned out to be really neat as all of the moons are on one side which is not that common...

Jupiter

Location: Monroe, CT
Date/Time: 2/29/16 0:38 am
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i
Filter: none
Telescope: Orion ED80 80mm f/7.5 Apochromatic Refractor Telescope
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G GoTo Telescope Mount
Autoguiding: none

Focal Length: 600mm
f/7.5
Exposure: 1-1/500s, 1-1/10s
ISO: 800
Post Processing: Photoshop, Lightroom, Backyard EOS, Google Drawing (Labels)