Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Sagittarius (Sgr)  ·  Contains:  7 Sgr  ·  9 Sgr  ·  B296  ·  B88  ·  B89  ·  Hourglass nebula  ·  Lagoon nebula  ·  M 8  ·  NGC 6523  ·  NGC 6526  ·  NGC 6530  ·  Sh2-25  ·  The star 7Sgr  ·  The star 9Sgr
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M8, Lagoon Nebula, HO Bicolor, Aug 2019, David Dearden
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M8, Lagoon Nebula, HO Bicolor, Aug 2019

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M8, Lagoon Nebula, HO Bicolor, Aug 2019, David Dearden
Powered byPixInsight

M8, Lagoon Nebula, HO Bicolor, Aug 2019

Equipment

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Acquisition details

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Description

4100 LY

After a very long hiatus due to travel, bad weather, and busyness, I finally got Hα data to enable a bicolor image. This shows dramatically more detail than I have gotten on the Lagoon before. If good weather holds, I’d like to add SII and even RGB, but this target is always low on my southern horizon and time to capture it is passing quickly. It’s surprisingly difficult to show the peripheral nebulosity without also blowing out the bright core.

Date: 2 July and 20 Aug 2019

Subject: M8, Lagoon Nebula

Scope: AT8IN+High Point Scientific Coma Corrector

Filters: ZWO 31 mm diameter unmounted 7 nm Hα, OIII

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

Guiding: Orion Thin Off-axis Guider + ASI120MM-mini +PHD 2.6.6 (Win 10 ASCOM)

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

Acquisition: Sequence Generator Pro 3.0.3.198

Exposure: 20x300 Hα, 11x300 OIII

Stacking: Deep SkyStacker 4.2.2 (64-bit) dark+flat+bias, κ-σ stacking with κ = 1.5.

Processing: StarTools 1.4.352: Cropped, wiped, developed, HDR optimized, deconvoluted, and untrack denoised the Hα and OIII data separately. Combined using Annie’s Astro Actions HO Bicolor process. Some horizontal banding noise remained in the OIII that I didn’t eliminate. Used Hα as luminance layer and made slight adjustments to luminance and RGB layer curves in an attempt to improve the color. AstroFrame.

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M8, Lagoon Nebula, HO Bicolor, Aug 2019, David Dearden