M8 with the Esprit 120

[Craig_]

With the clear nights in Sydney last weekend I got to spend some time on M8 with the Esprit 120. I have finally gotten my OAG working and the improvement in guiding performance was :eyepop: I went from average RMS of around 0.9" to 1.1" or so with plenty of differential flexure to about 0.4" - 0.5" with no flexure. Good times :) Still got a few kinks in the guiding to work out but nothing that seems to materially impact images - I had to discard very few subs from this :)

About 110 * 180s lights for a bit over five hours
Darks
Flats
Dark flats

Esprit 120
ASI533
EQ6-R
Optolong Extreme
ZWO OAG
ASI290MM Mini

[Startrek]

Craig,
That’s a beautiful M8 indeed , you certainly captured some data there
Great detail and colour
It’s a shame your ASI533 has a smallish sensor size ( 11.3mm x 11.3mm ) as you couldn’t quite frame the whole nebula in the image ( or did you crop some edges ? )
I use a 2600MC with my 8” and 6” newts , same EQ6-R mount , the 2600MC has a 23mm x 15mm sensor and I can capture the whole nebula with some interstellar background around it with both scopes
FOV in arc minutes = camera sensor size in mm ( width / height) x 3460 / scope focal length . You can work out whether you can frame your targets with your set up and this FOV equation before your choose them or know what to expect. Bintel has a FOV calculator as well
Still a fantastic image
Well done !!
Martin

[mynameiscd]

Nice one Craig!!! heaps of fine details in the cloud especially the ridge in the bottom 1/4 !! The dark clouds are spot on and sharp as anything and so are the stars.
A real difference with a refractor and astro cam compared to a Newt with a DSLR!!
One of the the better Lagoons I've seen!!
Well done

Andy

[Craig_]

Thanks Martin. Yes, with the 120 it won't fit in the frame. There wasn't much of a crop of the object here, I just cropped it down from square to 5:4 format which I think presents better for this object. It's funny though, for M8 I actually greatly prefer the tighter-in view. I imaged it last year with the Esprit 80, which easily fits the whole object into the frame, and I actually ended up cropping it down to pretty much this exact FOV :lol: Naturally I now have considerably more detail than I was getting by cropping away so much of the Esprit 80 frame though.

I find with a lot of objects I prefer seeing a closer view than fitting the entire thing in, but it does depend on the object. I usually use Sky Safari to check out framing with my gear and pick between the Esprit 80 and 120.

[Craig_]

Thanks Andy. The seeing was good the nights I imaged this, especially the 2nd night when I got most of the data, so it is crisp indeed.

[Alchemy]

A rather interesting processing, tiny stars and the hourglass well blended in, a nice result…. Going to have to give one of those extreme filters a try.

[Sunfish]

Working well. Very smooth and tight. The original detail comes through the processing admirably.

[multiweb]

:eyepop: A truly superb M8. Top shelf. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
What is this doing in the beginners forum? :question:

[Mickoid]

Beautiful shot, I agree with Marc, too good to be posted here. Love the colour and sharpness, processing also has been tastefully applied, great job Craig!

[Craig_]

Cheers all!