Lagoon and Trifid wide field image

[Quatermass]

I am loving this area of the sky so much! Went out again as it was nice and clear but this time swapped the 200p over for my Evostar ED80 with the focal reducer. My goal was to capture the Lagoon and Trifid together. Would you believe it I left my Bahtinov mask at home aggh .. so instead I used a twig in the shape of a Y to get focus and it actually worked

Really pleased with this one and it completes my set of images for this section of the sky, just about. Got a few clusters I want to capture but here are all my shots from this region along with my wide-field shot from last night.

Wide-field shot of Trifid and Lagoon taken with Evostar ED80 and focal reducer last night with no diffraction spikes for those that like round stars

Single shot of the Trifid with 200p

Single shot of Lagoon with 200p

I am now officially in love with Sagittarius and all the wonders that can be found there its just an amazingly rich part of the southern sky and well worth travelling out in the car to get images from.

[Gina]

Lovely Mark - great image (and nice round stars ) Must see if I can get onto these objects next time we get a clear night. Whether they are visible from here depends on their direction compared with various trees. If that's alright they might just be do-able in the early hours when most house lights are off. Street lights are mainly taken care of with my CLS-CCD clip filter but not white lights of course. We have light pollution from about south to SSW then the hills and trees take over. At least the south suffers less from sunlight at night There was a lightness in the sky to the north all night long even at real midnight (1am BST) last night.

[Quatermass]

Thanks Gina if you do have a go at this area the best time is between 1 and 2am at the moment but come 2.30 its starting to get light again. It reall is worth having a crack at the lagoon and trifid but if they are too low the Eagle nebula is a bit higher up and just as nice.

[sologuitarist61]

Nice one Mark, what imaging gear were you using please - how long were the exposures?

[Quatermass]

Thanks Richard.

For the wide field this was with my canon 350d and the skywatcher evostar ed80 with focal reducer .

Main subs 52 at 80 sec ISO was 800 stacked with 60 darks flats and bias shots unguided.

Pretty much the same with the others but they were done with the skywatcher 200p.

All from a dark site out of town and away from light pollution with a good view of the milky way.

[Black Knight]

I love that wide field shot, terrific stuff QM! Unfortunately I can't see much of Sagittarius from where I am - too much LP and stuff in the way. I did though catch a glimpse of the Lagoon nebula last night (and maybe the Triffid too) with my bins, which was nice .

[Quatermass]

Thanks Black night that is my favourite one of them all glad to put the Evostar to some good use at last.

[Kbramley]

Great shot, looking forward to trying these too.

[Quatermass]

Cheers Kbramely, its a lovely set of Nebula to image sure you will really enjoy imaging them

[Gina]

Just checked with a magnetic compass from my pier position and the biggest tree goes from about 170 to 182 degrees. Looking at my planisphere, Sagittarius is roughly due south at 1am tonight but is further west and in a clearer direction in the next few weeks so that will be a better time to try. Who knows, maybe the weather will be better by then Heacy rain forecast for tonight and tomorrow

[Quatermass]

Well if you try next month it should be nice and high for you so may be better to try it then shame its so low as its such a great subject for image, fingers crossed for you Gina

[Gina]

Thanks Gina if you do have a go at this area the best time is between 1 and 2am at the moment but come 2.30 its starting to get light again. It reall is worth having a crack at the lagoon and trifid but if they are too low the Eagle nebula is a bit higher up and just as nice.

Thanks for that, I'll see what I can see I found last night when imaging the Veil that it wasn't dark enough until midnight and the background was starting to get lighter at around 2am. I was nearly asleep by then anyway so packed up and set up for the darks. Nothing like doing things at the very worst time of the year But it's been so long since the weather was suitable that I was glad to

[Quatermass]

It might make thing easier if you do a load of darks flats and bias shots and keep them as stock images for use with your subs. I have been using the same stock images for the last 5 weeks and they work just fine it saves a ton of time when your out late and you dont want to faff around doing darks flats and bias shots. I keep a stock of about 60 darks flats and bias then redo them after about a month.

[cloudbuster]

very nice images mark....youv'e come a long way!

[Quatermass]

Thank you Cloudbuster, its been a great journey learning all this stuff I really love astrophotography

[Gina]

It might make thing easier if you do a load of darks flats and bias shots and keep them as stock images for use with your subs. I have been using the same stock images for the last 5 weeks and they work just fine it saves a ton of time when your out late and you dont want to faff around doing darks flats and bias shots. I keep a stock of about 60 darks flats and bias then redo them after about a month.

Yes, I'm planning to do that in due course. I already now have a set of 5m ISO 1600 and -15C, and 4m ISO 1600 -15C. I'm thinking of using -15C as set point temperature and I expect to do mainly ISO 1600. I'm going to clean the image sensor as it's collected a heap of dross, then I'll do a new heap of flats and hope there's no more dross lurking around in the camera I'll take some bias frames as well. Recently I've been concentrating on my camera cooling so now that's done I have some catching up to do. I'll get myself better organised in time

[RikM]

Lovely set Mark

I reuse darks and bias but flats I do each time. They are so quick with an EL panel and because I set up each time, there is no way I can get the camera back in exactly the same place each night.

[Quatermass]

Cheer Rik,Because I put my set up in the shed with the camera still attached its easy to take the flats and bias in the morning and a timer on the camera takes care of the darks while I get some kip. An EL panel sounds like a good investment just ordered my self a laser collimator to sort out my collimation errors.

[4lefts]

fantastic image mark - especially love the ed80 widefield.

[Quatermass]

Thank you Proto Star really enjoyed processing this one not so much fun being out on the back roads of Suffolk at 2am by a creepy tree with an owl hooting away to get it. Im just a big scardy cat really.

[4lefts]

i dunno... a lady from the devon bird of prey centre brought an eagle owl in to show the kids once. she told us it could kill a roe deer...

[Gina]

I expect my camera to stay on the scope in the same orientation once I've cleaned the sensor so my flats should be reusable. However, I do intend getting an Astronomik Ha clip filter sometime and will have to redo flats each time I swap filters I guess. With my present setup a filter wheel isn't practical.

[Quatermass]

i dunno... a lady from the devon bird of prey centre brought an eagle owl in to show the kids once. she told us it could kill a roe deer...

Well it was only a little owl I guess everthing seems much bigger and creepy at night time

[4lefts]

Well it was only a little owl I guess everthing seems much bigger and creepy at night time

true - one of the things i'm not keen on with astronomy. it does get creepy out there.

[Quatermass]

It does, I feel safer in my back garden but sometimes you have to get out to a dark site to get better results, I must be brave