Lagoon Nebula

[JimFox]

This was from the end up of the night as it doesn't rise above the horizon until about 4am. I thought it had some cool color and shape to it. I am still working on my post processing obviously, but I am pretty happy with how this turned out since I was struggling a bit getting the red of the nebula to separate from the background.

The Lagoon Nebula is the larger area in the lower right. This also includes the Trifid Nebula which is the smaller Blue and Red Nebula at the top. The bright golden star I believe is 11 Sgr. Mars is just off to the lower left a bit but not included.

This used:

23 - 60 sec shots at ISO 6400 and f6
12 - Dark Frames
12 - Flat Frames
12 - Bias Frames

Taken with the Nikon D850 and Tamron 150-600mm at 420mm
Stacked in DeepSkyStacker and Processed in Photoshop

All comments are welcome,

Jim

 

[AlanLichty]

Pretty cool results - not something I thought was possible with a DSLR camera prior to some of the astro photo discussions in this subforum.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Very neat Jim, I am liking your deep sky images a lot. This forum is building some good presence in Deep sky, drone and IR.

 

[JimFox]

Pretty cool results - not something I thought was possible with a DSLR camera prior to some of the astro photo discussions in this subforum.

Thanks Alan, it is really amazing at just what can be captured with a plain DSLR.

 

[Mike Lewis]

Great job - got the Lagoon AND the Trifid both! These make a fantastic pair in a wider shot like this. You got some good signal here, and both the emission nebulae( Lagoon and half of Trifid) and reflection nebulae (other half of Trifid) come through Jewry well. Nice detail, and the color balance looks great.

One other comment I meant to include on your other shot but forgot. You should watch the black level. Turns out space is not really completely black. The tendency is to process that way, because that is what we expect to see with our eyes, but you end up leaving some faint signal out of your result if you go too black.

ML

 

[Colorado CJ]

WOW! Looks like you are really getting the hang of it.

Colors look spot on. I am really surprised that you are getting that kind of detail with only 23 minutes. What kind of dark skies are you shooting in? I shoot in Bortle 6 zone. Here is a good rundown on how to estimate your light pollution: https://astrobackyard.com/the-bortle-scale/

 

[Alisa]

This was from the end up of the night as it doesn't rise above the horizon until about 4am. I thought it had some cool color and shape to it. I am still working on my post processing obviously, but I am pretty happy with how this turned out since I was struggling a bit getting the red of the nebula to separate from the background.

The Lagoon Nebula is the larger area in the lower right. This also includes the Trifid Nebula which is the smaller Blue and Red Nebula at the top. The bright golden star I believe is 11 Sgr. Mars is just off to the lower left a bit but not included.

This used:

23 - 60 sec shots at ISO 6400 and f6
12 - Dark Frames
12 - Flat Frames
12 - Bias Frames

Taken with the Nikon D850 and Tamron 150-600mm at 420mm
Stacked in DeepSkyStacker and Processed in Photoshop

All comments are welcome,

Jim

View attachment 25702

So cool! I think I will stick to what I am still learning! lol

 

[JimFox]

WOW! Looks like you are really getting the hang of it.

Colors look spot on. I am really surprised that you are getting that kind of detail with only 23 minutes. What kind of dark skies are you shooting in? I shoot in Bortle 6 zone. Here is a good rundown on how to estimate your light pollution: https://astrobackyard.com/the-bortle-scale/

Thanks so much Andrew. I have been really pleased with the details I have been getting since I am using such a bare bones system. I give all the credit to my Nikon D850 which I love!

As to the Bortles, I need to look that up. I have been driving to Joshua Tree to do all of my Astro so far. So far from Google it seems like it's a Bortle 4 I think. I downloaded the Clear Outside App just now, so I will check tomorrow as I have been curious about that.