Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Sagittarius (Sgr)  ·  Contains:  Hourglass nebula  ·  IC 1274  ·  IC 1275  ·  IC 4684  ·  IC 4685  ·  Lagoon nebula  ·  M 20  ·  M 21  ·  M 8  ·  NGC 6514  ·  NGC 6523  ·  NGC 6526  ·  NGC 6530  ·  NGC 6531  ·  NGC 6544  ·  NGC 6546  ·  NGC 6559  ·  The star 4Sgr  ·  The star 7Sgr  ·  The star 9Sgr  ·  Trifid nebula

Image of the day 06/11/2016

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Sunflowers - M8,M20 & NGC 6334 in Narrowband, Andy 01
Sunflowers - M8,M20 & NGC 6334 in Narrowband
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Sunflowers - M8,M20 & NGC 6334 in Narrowband

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Description

Inspired by Van Gogh's famous still life painting - "Sunflowers" and an APOD from 2007 here we have the Sagittarius triplet in glorious narrowband, taken from my light polluted suburban backyard in Melbourne, Australia.

Approximately 20 hrs exposure in all in 20min subs. 7 Hrs Ha, & 8 hrs S2 and 5 hrs O3 (All 5nm Astrodon filters) with RGB stars, 15 x 1min R,G&B.

Very tricky to process with the brightness range being extreme over these three objects. The M8 core and M20 are insanely bright, and NGC 6334 is very dim. Also the surrounding area is rich in Ha and S2 so they needed to be toned down to emphasise the "flower vase" structure. I wanted to "respect the light" but I had to compensate by dimming down certain areas for an overall pleasing aesthetic effect.

Havn't seen too many Sagittarius triplets with this NB treatment and composition, so I hope you like it and thanks for looking!

UPDATE: Image chosen as NASA APOD June 24th, 2016

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    Sunflowers - M8,M20 & NGC 6334 in Narrowband, Andy 01
    Original
  • Final
    Sunflowers - M8,M20 & NGC 6334 in Narrowband, Andy 01
    B

B

Description: Core detail sharpened - minor colour mapping revisions

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Sunflowers - M8,M20 & NGC 6334 in Narrowband, Andy 01