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Lagoon Nebula (M8)


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Ladies and Gents, may I present.. the Lagoon Nebula

15079032528_83a1b8a695_b.jpg

Lagoon Nebula (M8) by glowingturnip, on Flickr

The Lagoon Nebula (M8, NGC 6523) is a giant interstellar cloud in the constellation Sagittarius. It is classified as an emission nebula and as a H II region.

 

The Lagoon Nebula is estimated to be between 4,000-6,000 light years from the Earth and has an actual dimension of 110 by 50 light years. The nebula contains a number of Bok globules (dark, collapsing clouds of protostellar material). It also includes a funnel-like or tornado-like structure caused by a hot O-type star that emanates ultraviolet light, heating and ionizing gases on the surface of the nebula. The Lagoon Nebula also contains at its centre a structure known as the Hourglass Nebula (brightest part of this image)

12 or so 300s lights (it was setting fairly early for me, would have liked more) at ISO400 (bit of an experiment, think I'll go back to ISO800), flats, darks and bias, equipment as per sig, rubbish unmodded DSLR at prime focus, processed in Pixinsight.

I had problems with my red channel with this image which was rather weak, which I put down to the UHC/LP filter I was using (can't remember the make).  I didn't really need to use it tbh, I could see the LP dome above the nearest town and was shooting through the top of it, but could have done without really.  Fortunately I had some old (out of focus :embarrassed: ) data I was able to reinforce that channel with.

Hope you enjoy !

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Hi

Stunning capture. Really enjoying it. Would love to get my hands on a CCD/Modded DSLR to capture me some emission nebulae (also would like to sit further south, a lot of the southern stuff is impossible up here north).

Some remarks: Stars are slightly elongated, and you've cut the background just a tad to much towards black.

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Hi mate, thanks vm.

Yeah, there is a bit of star elongation there, I was struggling quite badly with Dec backlash in my guiding this time which I've not really had before, as per some of my recent posts.  Hope it's not too detracting though.

For the black point, I plead personal preference on that one !  Personally, I like the background a little darker than others, and usually aim for about 3.5%-4% in pixinsight for it.  No pixels were clipped in the making of this image though.

yeah, I'd love a modded DSLR too (this one is unmodded) - I think there might be one on my xmas list...

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Ladies and Gents, may I present.. the Lagoon Nebula

15079032528_83a1b8a695_b.jpg

Lagoon Nebula (M8) by glowingturnip, on Flickr

 rubbish unmodded DSLR at prime focus, processed in Pixinsight.

I had problems with my red channel with this image which was rather weak, which I put down to the UHC/LP filter I was using (can't remember the make).  I didn't really need to use it tbh, I could see the LP dome above the nearest town and was shooting through the top of it, but could have done without really.  Fortunately I had some old (out of focus :embarrassed: ) data I was able to reinforce that channel with.

Hope you enjoy !

there is no such ting as a rubbish dslr and by the looks of it yours aint rubbish nice image lucky so & so  well done Stuart.

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For the black point, I plead personal preference on that one !  Personally, I like the background a little darker than others, and usually aim for about 3.5%-4% in pixinsight for it.  No pixels were clipped in the making of this image though.

Ok, I promise I wont press charges ;)

Howcome do you think the stars are elongated, just curious as you are autoguiding.

Keep up the good work, cant wait to see your next project.

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I think you may be right, so I did a quick re-stretch of this image, without darkening the background so much.  It's funny how it takes a few days of looking at an image, and on several different screens, before you know what you're happy with and what you're not.  It actually still looks better darker on this laptop that I use for my processing, but does come across as too dark on other PC's, guess I need to check my screen gamma.  Anyway, here it is:

15079032528_917dd7c84b_b.jpg

Lagoon Nebula (M8) by glowingturnip, on Flickr

I also had another shot at my Eagle Nebula image, giving the red channel a little more tlc, though to be honest I'm not really satisfied with this one, needs a lot more data:

14978382809_0a44324191_z.jpg

Eagle Nebula (M16) by glowingturnip, on Flickr

Cheers,

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