Lagoon and Trifid - 2023 (Joshua Kovach)

Lagoon and Trifid - 2023

Revision title: Lagoon and Trifid - 2023

This is my latest take on the Lagoon and Trifid Nebulae. Unfortunately, due to the amount of smoke in the atmosphere this year, I was unable to take enough RGB data with a matching camera and angle, so I've combined RGB from my similar photo from last year, aligned and cropped to match the new dual narrow-band data using the NBZ filter.

If you look very closely, you'll see a lot of ugly digital artifacts that were introduced during BlurXT on the old DSLR RGB data.

The NBZ data was processed with Bill Blanshan's HOONormalizationV5 script, adjusted for color, and then split into Ha and OIII channels using the following Pixelmath formulae:
/*** Extract Ha from an RGB Dual Narrowband image capturing Ha + OIII*/Red = 0.9170;Green = 0.0710;Blue = 0.0336;$T[0] * Red + $T[1] * Green + $T[2] * Blue
/*** Extract OIII from an RGB Dual Narrowband image capturing Ha + OIII*/Red = 0.0830;Green = 0.9290;Blue = 0.9664;$T[0] * Red + $T[1] * Green + $T[2] * Blue
I then recombined Ha and OIII data using the Foraxx script.

I combined the RGB and Foraxx images using the Toolbox -> CombineImages script using the screening technique. I then re-screened the unscreened RGB stars and then used BB's StarReductionMethod3_V3 PM formula with medium reduction.

There was a lot more that went in to getting this as right as I could, but these are the steps I feel important enough to document.

I would have liked to have more RGB data taken with the ASI183MC-Pro instead of having to rely on the DSLR data, but I just didn't have enough from this year and the target now seems out of range for me.

Original
Final
B

B

Title: Lagoon and Trifid - 2023

Description: Recombined new RGB data, old RGB data, and new HOO data for this result that I'm finally happy with.

Uploaded: ...

Grand Rapids Amateur Astronomical Association

	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
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	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	8256232
PixInsight job	282EPNSWMKKQ294UFH3MCDRV11UFVEYP
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	18h03m37s.38
RA (top/left)	18h08m22s.10
RA (top/right)	18h07m37s.90
RA (bottom/right)	17h58m59s.24
RA (bottom/left)	17h59m30s.93

Dec (center)	-23°43′08″.9
Dec (top/left)	-25°09′15″.3
Dec (top/right)	-22°10′39″.5
Dec (bottom/right)	-22°16′24″.7
Dec (bottom/left)	-25°15′13″.10

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