M20 The Trifid Nebula

[cometcatcher]

Continuing to experiment with the 8" F10 SCT. This is M20 The Trifid Nebula, or angry cat nebula from some angles. ;) z

Needs at least 10 hours to smooth out the noise but I'm still just mucking around at this stage to see what I can get.

Meade LX90 ACF 8" F10 SCT, Canon 1100Dfs, 600x30 seconds guided with PHD on a HEQ5 Pro.

The Trifid Nebula (catalogued as Messier 20 or M20 and as NGC 6514) is an H II region located in Sagittarius. It was discovered by Charles Messier on June 5, 1764. Its name means 'divided into three lobes'. Distance 5200 light years.

Large field at Astrobin ---> https://astrob.in/359647/0/

[strongmanmike]

Another nice shot there Kevin with a good colour balance but like M17..?.. longer subs perhaps..? :question:

Mike

[cometcatcher]

Needs longer everything Mike. :) DSLR's and F10 are not the best match. I don't personally recommend the combination to anyone else lol. DSLR's like F4 - F5 best. I'm just mucking about.

[Stevec35]

Not a bad shot for just mucking about but it does look a bit noisy. Maybe a mild noise reduction if you don't want to go to longer subs?

Steve

[strongmanmike]

Yep, I got that, nuttin wrong witch muckin about...fun to do sometimes, just image :P :thumbsup:

Mike

[Placidus]

Well done, Kevin. You've got excellent resolution there. Each of the two very bright stars on the upside-down tom-cat's nose is revealed to be a triple, comprising a very close binary and a fainter outer companion. That takes some doing.

The DSLR has let you capture the reflection nebulosity beautifully. The famous Herbig-Haro jet (the thorn in the pussy-cat's ear) and the cometary globule next to it are only just there if you know where to look.

[cometcatcher]

Already has gentle noise reduction. I don't usually like using it. The best noise reduction is more time. The thing is, I'm pretty harsh on processing. If I can't see grain, I haven't made it bleed hard enough. :) Some people like em buttery smooth, not me so much.



Thanks M&T. The core was masked out when processing the rest so as not to blow out the central stars, though with shorter subs I could have done even better. A bit like processing the Orion nebula.

[RickS]

Nice work, Kevin! I'd like to see the jets stand out a little but you are pushing he bounds of what is possible, as usual :)

[cometcatcher]

Thanks Rick. Yes I would like a bit deeper too. The night time temps are creeping up now as well which will be hard on this non cooled camera. Things will get lost in the noise.

[Atmos]

It's a new scope Kevin!

It's a nice shot for just doing some playing around. Nice separation of the central stars.

[cometcatcher]

It is Colin! The fun part is seeing what it can do. It's great for small bright objects.