A lot of things went wrong with this image: low on my horizon, fireworks smoke, focuser tension adjusted wrong, filter wheel/camera rotation loose (which forced me to crop a lot because of different camera orientations), dodging the sprinklers, not enough integration. The Lagoon is just hard to do from my location, but I keep trying anyway because it is really beautiful. I’m not sure this is even an improvement over what I’ve done before (and it really ought to be because the camera is a lot better than what I’ve used before!). It would have really helped if the focuser tension had been adjusted correctly so I could actually focus, but I guess as loose as it was I should feel lucky the camera didn’t fall off the telescope. I’d like to do this in narrowband SHO but that might have to wait until next year because I don’t have the Lagoon above my horizon for very long and the monsoon is troublesome this time of year.

Date: 4-17 Jul 2018

Subject: M8, Lagoon Nebula

Scope: AT8IN+High Point Scientific Coma Corrector

Filters: ZWO 31 mm diameter unmounted R, G, B, Hα

Mount: EQ-6 (EQMOD 2.000j)+PEC

Guiding: Orion Thin Off-axis Guider + DSI IIc +PHD 2.6.5 (Win 10 ASCOM)

Camera: ASI1600MM-Cool, -20 °C, Gain 139 Offset 21

Acquisition: Sequence Generator Pro 3.0.2.91

Exposure: 21x180 R, 19x180 G, 20x180 B, 20x300 Hα

Stacking: Deep Sky Stacker 4.1.1 (64-bit) dark+flat+bias, κ-σ stacking with κ = 1.5.

Processing: StarTools 1.4.332: Combined R, G, and B in StarTools. Binned 2x2, cropped, wiped, developed, HDR (core reveal), color, deconvolution. Stopped tracking to smooth. Binned Hα 2x2, cropped, wiped, and developed followed by HDR (core reveal). Deconvolution followed by untrack smoothing. Combined Hα with RGB in Photoshop using Starizona Method 1. This left the stars fairly blue because adding Hα to R really weakened R in the stars. Separated stars from RGB image using Annie’s Astro Actions, then screen layered them back on top of the image to try for better RGB star colors. AstroFrame.