11/25/05 M78 Reflection Nebula in Orion

M78 is among the brighter of the reflection Nebulea in the night sky. It is surrounded by dark dusty material that reflects the light of the stars behind it. It was in this area in 2004 that Jay McNeil discovered a new nebula (McNeil's Nebula) apparently revealed by the movement of the obscuring dust lanes. This is the second shot that I've taken with my new/used Tak FC-60 apo. I noticed some vignetting and need to try taking flats next time. But I'm still pleased overall, color is good, and it picked up some decent detail. The LX200 seems to be tracking very well at this image scale (3.37 arcseconds per pixel). The area of this image is about 55x85 arcminutes.