M8 - Lagoon Nebula

[RobK]

My continuing quest to obtain some degree of a decent image has resulted in this image. Taken from my backyard in southern Canberra.

180 lights at 60 sec each
30 of each of darks, flats etc
Acquisition was via NINA

SW Esprit 80mm
Heq5 mount
ASI 533mc camera

I could have framed the image better but overall happy with the result

Any tips, tricks or suggestions greatly appreciated

cheers

[AstroViking]

Hi Rob,

A good image for imaging in a light polluted area. About all I can offer is to work in boosting the colours / saturation of the nebula regions when you're doing the post processing.

If you can, try splitting the image into a 'stars only' and a 'starless' image and work on the two separately before recombining into one image. This lets you get the stars looking good without impacting the nebula regions, and vice-versa.

SiriL can do this for you, but can be a bit tricky to drive correctly. So I do the stacking / pre-processing / splitting in SiriL and then use Affinity Photo to recombine the images for a final touch-up.

Cheers,
V

[RobK]

Thanks Steve,
Rusty2 was also kind enough to explain splitting the image to be able to work on the nebula area and stars seperately.
Not much imaging likely to happen here for a while, so will be a good time to try.

cheers
Rob

[tgnielsen]

This is normally such a colourful target so I'm surprised to see it so washed out. I'd second AstroVikings suggestion about upping the saturation level.

I use Siril myself, and my processing flow goes as follows:

Crop
Background Extract
Photometric colour calibration
StarNet desaturate stars
Noise Reduction
Initial Asinh stretch to get the amount of stars i want in the image
Adjust the blackpoint
Remove stars with starnet (including auto stretch)
Colour calibrate on the core
Up the saturation level
Generalised Hyperbolic stretch to get get the image to pop
StarNet recombine

This normally gives me a nice image.

[jaleung]

For better capture of the nebula colours, I’d look to get longer exposures - at least 180s.
For that you might need to invest in a guider setup which works with the HEQ5. A good light pollution filter will do wonders too.
Then you’ll have better raw data to work with.

[RobK]

thanks for those tips all greatly appreciated. I am finding the image processing a challenge but one the best aspects, of this hobby, is learning new skills.
cheers

[Bodon]

Hi Rob
Mate, great photo. I dont confess to be a guru but there is a tad more in that photo. My second ever photo is the same as yours basically..pic attached.
I took it with an ED72 and a 183 colour camera and processed in siril. It is a bright object and 60 sec shots are fine. You have enough...but yeah more is always better to a point.
You took 180; my photo 141@60sec taken over a couple of nights in 2022. I had another go at it in PI this morning to give you a heads up.
Regards