M8 - Lagoon Nebula - First Attempt

[Gina]

Another first for me. Patchy clear sky last night gave me the opportunity to do some imaging last night and southerly objects the earliest in darkness. This is the result of selecting 27 lights out of several dozen (with no darks, flats or bias), stacking in DSS and final processing in PS. Rotated clockwise and cropped to about half size then resized to 1024px wide. Exposures were 10s at ISO 6400 and -6C. Short exposures were necessary to catch the gaps in the clouds - picking the good ones out from the obscured ones was quite a long job! Equipment as in sig - unguided.

[mgirdwood]

ungided and such short subs - i wish mine would show as much contrast , nice one gina

[Gina]

ungided and such short subs - i wish mine would show as much contrast , nice one gina

Thank you Contrast was boosted considerably in Photoshop But I started with low noise by cooling to minus six Celsius. With such short exposures it wasn't necessary to go lower even using ISO 6400.

[Chris]

Thats brilliant Gina for 10 sec subs! I don't think many of us would have even tried to image with such short gaps between the clouds:) what a result though!. I really do like the 1100D -6C aside thats good signal to noise for ISO6400, well I think it is?

[Gina]

Thats brilliant Gina for 10 sec subs! I don't think many of us would have even tried to image with such short gaps between the clouds:) what a result though!. I really do like the 1100D -6C aside thats good signal to noise for ISO6400, well I think it is?

I think it is too Yes, I'm very pleased with the 1100D Thank you

I've been getting so frustrated with this dreadful weather that I was determined to snatch as much as I could of clear sky. It was difficult I have to admit.

[nightvision]

I like it, especially that it was achieved with such short exposures, the cooling is really delivering; I see lot more features when viewed from a distance.

[Gina]

Thank you Tony

[Gina]

I got set up for another go at this last night hoping for the forecast clear spells but they didn't come Gave up soon after midnight as the clouds just seemed to be getting thicker and darker. Strings of lights in distant vilages across the valley and trees lit up by cars looked quite pretty though with 10-20 secs exposures at ISO 6400 Well... I had to do something while I was waiting for a break in the clouds

[Quatermass]

Very nice shot Gina and well done for getting out there when the clouds broke for you. Surprised you did'nt go for the Trifid Nebula which is just above the lagoon I reckon you could easily get it in the frame. The wretched weather really is dire I have taken to making model planes and fishing while I wait for it it clear.

[Gina]

Thanks Mark I got it in the wide-field but it's too small - I'll try a longer lens next time - it really was all a bit rushed to get anything at all Actually, I though I might get it in the scope camera frame but I didn't so settled for the Lagoon. Hopefully there will be (several) other occasions when I can try for it

[Quatermass]

July and August are pretty good for that area of the sky really fancy trying to get the Helix Nebula in August round about my birthday that would be a nice birthday treat.

[Jessun]

This image put a smile to my face Gina. I think it's one of your best to date. The calibration frames can still be done too! There's virtually no tell-tale of this being a DSLR image in your processing.

I have never imaged this in my city smog so know nothing of it, but do you reckon the background could be tweaked down a notch in the red, or is the whole region Ha rich? Then you could select the stars and whack up the saturation to give the image a nice overall framing. I believe it's MartinB that has a tutorial sticky on that - one that I use pretty much everytime.

Thanks for sharing! Makes me swear at the clouds here...

[Gina]

July and August are pretty good for that area of the sky really fancy trying to get the Helix Nebula in August round about my birthday that would be a nice birthday treat.

Ah yes When's you birthday? Mine's in a week's time when I reach the Biblical three score years and ten

[lukebl]

Brilliant! That really is an amazing result from 10 second subs. Who needs guiding!

[Gina]

This image put a smile to my face Gina. I think it's one of your best to date. The calibration frames can still be done too! There's virtually no tell-tale of this being a DSLR image in your processing.

Thank you

I have never imaged this in my city smog so know nothing of it, but do you reckon the background could be tweaked down a notch in the red, or is the whole region Ha rich? Then you could select the stars and whack up the saturation to give the image a nice overall framing. I believe it's MartinB that has a tutorial sticky on that - one that I use pretty much everytime.

Thanks for sharing! Makes me swear at the clouds here...

Yes, it is an Ha rich area which makes me think I'll do a serious Ha wide-field shot at it. I've put it back into PS and tweaked the contrast, curves and levels - here's the result :-

[squeaky]

There's even more there, honest

I found a great tutorial on using levels and curves with anchor points:

Four iterations of that plus a few extra bits and bobs shows...

The nebulous areas are beginning to lift around those areas with lots of red stars now so it maybe needs a couple more iterations of that video; and it's the bits and bobs that have just started to blow out the central core - so I'd need to ease up on those.

But do watch that video - the difference he makes is incredible. Well, it is to me

[Uranium235]

Very good for such short subs, a tricky target as it usually requires that the southern horizon is really clear - which doesnt actually happen that often, even less so over the past couple of months!

[Gina]

There's even more there, honest

I found a great tutorial on using levels and curves with anchor points:

Four iterations of that plus a few extra bits and bobs shows...

The nebulous areas are beginning to lift around those areas with lots of red stars now so it maybe needs a couple more iterations of that video; and it's the bits and bobs that have just started to blow out the central core - so I'd need to ease up on those.

But do watch that video - the difference he makes is incredible. Well, it is to me

Thanks very much for that - very useful

[Gina]

Very good for such short subs, a tricky target as it usually requires that the southern horizon is really clear - which doesnt actually happen that often, even less so over the past couple of months!

Thank you I was lucky with the clouds that night

[squeaky]

When it comes right down to it you've got a cracking capture there.

[Quatermass]

Ah yes When's you birthday? Mine's in a week's time when I reach the Biblical three score years and ten

My Birthday is on August the 22nd just after we discover there is life on mars and David Bowie comes round to wish me happy birthday and sing is there life on mars to me.. I wish

hope you get loads a lovely presents and have great day Gina

[Ganymede12]

That's a nice picture! If only I could get pics like that!

[Gina]

That's a nice picture! If only I could get pics like that!

Thank you It's taken me a while and a fair amount of work and patience but I think I'm getting there

[Anweniel]

I'll reiterate the plaudits for getting such a great pic out of 10s exposures, bravo! Really nice to see some imaging being done in the uk inspite of the weather - am jealous though I cant even play with polar alignment at the moment, nothing but clouds since April!!!!! Oh and many happy returns for today

[Gina]

I'll reiterate the plaudits for getting such a great pic out of 10s exposures, bravo! Really nice to see some imaging being done in the uk inspite of the weather - am jealous though I cant even play with polar alignment at the moment, nothing but clouds since April!!!!! Oh and many happy returns for today

Thank you very much Yes, been a very long time since we had decent weather. I just had to push for every last bit of clear sky for this image but the result was worth it

Now we seem to have a much better forecast and indeed last night was perfectly clear and I managed a good run with the widefield camera and Ha filter which I've posted about in another thread. I'm hoping to do more colour imaging with the scope on this area.