The Lagoon Nebula at 3 metres

[gregbradley]

Taken the other night , seeing was weak and it was low in the sky as I was primarily imaging something else until 3am. So this one is a short exposure from 3:30am to around 5:30am.

Still it turned out OK given that. It was also windy.

CDK7 on an AP1600 mount,FLI ML16200 camera.

5 minute exposures. HaRGB.

https://pbase.com/image/170836560/large

Greg.

[multiweb]

That's a nice fov for it. :thumbsup: At that FL anything to do with seeing or wind will just bugger up everything. I went out once to do the same field around that FL. There was no wind but the seeing was so so and in hindsight I should have watched TV that night. :lol:

[gregbradley]

Yes. I am surprised by the AP1600 though. Its a beast and wind doesn't affect the scope toooo much so long as I take the cloth light shroud off the scope so its just part of the truss and secondary that gets wind on it. But yes bad seeing is very hard on long focal length optics.

Greg.

[Peter Ward]

Yep, nice image scale, but even the tiniest mechanical shift, tracking error or optical error becomes apparent at 3 metres (and above)

On nights of excellent it is a challenge to get absolutely perfect stellar profiles.

[Placidus]

Despite all the caveats, it looks delicious to me. Nice hourglass. Well done!

[gregbradley]

Very true.



Thank M & T. I like the colours and more detail than I have gotten before but it deserves some time when its at the zenith.

Greg.