Messier 78 (M78, NGC 2068) – Casper the Friendly Ghost Nebula

One of the most popular targets for astrophotographers, and one of my personal favorites, Messier 78 (M78), sometimes called the Casper the Friendly Ghost Nebula, is a bright reflection nebula in Orion approximately 1,600 light years away. It’s approximately three light years in breadth. I’ve shot this target several times in several ways, so look for other images of it on here.

Technically, only the central blue region is catalogued as M78—and it’s also catalogued as vdB 59. The blue region to the left of that is catalogued as NGC 2071 and vdB 60.

The M78 region is a hotbed for star formation. The area is packed with Herbig-Haro (HH) objects and young stellar objects (YSOs). There are 44 documented Herbig-Haro objects and 254 documented YSOs:

Herbig-Haro objects are areas of bright nebulosity created by jets from newly formed stars. A YSO is an object that is producing internal nuclear fusion, but has not quite become a full-fledged star (that is, it has yet to arrive on what scientists call the main sequence).

The dark molecular clouds in the area are excellent locations for star formation because they tend to be colder and denser, thus allowing matter to clump together and start attracting more material through gravitational attraction.

M78 is already the brightest reflection nebula in the sky from our vantage point. With all this new star formation going on, it seems logical to assume it will only get brighter.

I didn’t get a lot of exposure time on this. I only had two nights with it on a dark-sky trip to Borrego Springs, California for the Nightfall star party in 2022. But they were quality nights, and the target is bright enough to get a good read on it with less exposure time.