Living in the Metropolitan Midwest in a Bortle 8 light pollution area is not the biggest challenge to capturing deep space objects. In fact life is probably the most challenging part.

Current Equipment
Scopes:
William Optics Z61 360MM Focal Length with Field Flattener
GSO - 1370mm Ritchey Chretien

Cams:
ZWO ASI183MM Mono cooled dedicated Astro Cam
ZWO ASI120MMS Guide Camera -

ZWO Filter wheel 1.25" with Orion HA, OIII, SII Narrowband Filters, Astromania L R G B filter set
ZWO EAF
Mount: EQ-6-R Pro

ASIAir-Pro V1.5

Processing Tools
Photoshop
Lightroom
Deepskystacker