M8 Lagoon Nebula

[AstroTom]

Ho Everyone,

After photographing the Eta Carina nebula I thought I wuld have a go at the Lagoon Nebula. The result was the photo attached below. This photo is composed of the following:

40 x 30 sec at ISO1600
5 x 60 sec at ISO800
20 darks
20 bias

All stacked in DSS and further processed in Adobe Lightroom.

Unfortunetly I did'nt take any flats mainly as I have no plain white cloths or T-shirts to enable me to take flats. The camera was a modified Canon EOS 600D with a light pollution filter. The telescope was an unguided CPC 800 with a f/6.3 reducer attached. Unfortunetly with my long focal length and even with the reducer attached its very difficult to get the whole nebula in the photo. But I am quite happy with the photo obtained.

Regards,

Tom

[jjjnettie]

You've got some lovely detail there.
In a pinch, you can use your laptop screen to take flats. You'll probably need to have someone hold it up to the scope though. :)

[astronobob]

Good going for the f/Length Tom, its a different ball game @ longer than a meter and a half :thumbsup:
Good show ...

[AstroTom]

Thanks Bob, Jeanette. I was suprised at how much detail I pickewd up on this nebula. In the coming weels I am going to try and photo some more of the nebula in this area probably the triffid next.

Yea the long focal length is always a challenge although I had the reducer on for this image and most of the images that I take.

Tom