Another Lagoon Nebula

[SB]

Hi All,
Had another attempt at the Lagoon Nebula,

Taken with Esprit 100, ASI 183 MC and 3.5nm Antlia Ha, Sii and Oiii filters 34 X 300sec each filter. This time I chose not to recolour each filter thus keeping the 'natural' colour of the target.

Stacked and processed in Affinity. Darks, Bias and artificial Flats.

Best

Chris

[PKay]

Very dramatic Chris, I actually like that style, some hate it :rolleyes:

If you were to use Pixinsight, you can invert and remove green and then re invert. That can get rid of the magenta stars.

[SB]

Hi Peter,
Thanks for that. Fixed that up as you suggested.

Best

Chris

[raymo]

I don't understand what you mean by the "natural" colour of the target;
the inner part of the Lagoon is largely blue, not orange/red.
raymo

[SB]

Hi Raymo,
My beginner level understanding is that if the Hubble palate is used the lagoon will indeed look blue in the centre. In this case I did not recolour the filter signals as I was using an OSC with my narrowband filters

The main emissions from M8 are Ha, Sii and Oiii. When Ha and Sii are combined this give a predominately orange/red colour. When I use the Sii filter the signal is strong even with my OSC. So when the orange/red is combined with the Oiii signal it gives a sort of Olive/Green colour in the inner part of M8 (which I moved to a more yellow (artistic licence)).

[AdamJL]

Hi Chris. Not necessarily. I took a picture last year of the Lagoon using the 5D IV last year without filters, just broadband. The centre is blue, mainly because a stock 5D IV doesn't pick up much hydrogen alpha.
https://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showpost.php?p=1525585&postcount=5
At the top of that same thread is an image with an OSC with a duoband filter.
So I guess the point is, there is no "natural". We tend to define natural as mimicking the human eye, which a DSLR would be the closest, but it's still not natural or a universal law. Human eyes are incredibly insensitive to a broad spectrum, so this is where the artistic license comes into it that you mention.

If you have a camera that can capture more hydrogen, then the centre becomes less blue and more red (not as red as the edges) because there's not only Oxygen there, but also a lot of Hydrogen. You can process that away by focussing on the Oxygen. There's no right or wrong :)

[SB]

Hi Adam,
Thanks for that.
It wasn't really my intention to get caught up in discussion about M8 colours. I think that's why I put the word Natural in commas as it was a variation away from false colours.

Always good see your posts.

Chris.

[AdamJL]

Apologies, Chris I didn't mean to hijack the thread!

And it's a great shot either way! Clear skies :)
Adam