Lagoon Nebula

[Lester]

HI all,

This is my first stacked DSO image for nearly 2 years, so any tips/ comments will be appreciated.

Captured 15 x 2 minute exposures at iso 1600 with Astro 40D camera at 0 degrees, shooting through the Takahashi Epsilon 160mm F3.3 Astrograph. I have not got the auto guiding working yet, so the 2 minute subs were with the Titan at sidereal rate and no corrections.

Used DSS and Photoshop for the processing.

Thanks.

http://i638.photobucket.com/albums/uu109/Lester_045/AstroLagoon15x2minDSSfinal.jpg

[bloodhound31]

That's lovely Lester.

I am amazed at what can be captured with a consumer DSLR.

Great work mate.

Baz.

[renormalised]

Very nice piccie for an unguided set of subs:D:D

[toryglen-boy]

nice image Lester, i would darken the background slightly, and maybe give the colours a bit more vibrance, but given the fact that its unguided, its a very very good effort

:)

[Lester]

Thanks Baz, Carl and Duncan for your comments.:thumbsup:

I darkened the image slightly and added some vibrance in Photoshop. Helped to give the image some more life.


http://i638.photobucket.com/albums/uu109/Lester_045/AstroLagoon15x2minDSSfinal2nd.jpg

[toryglen-boy]

yes Lester, thats better, although the original was good to !!

;)

[Lester]

Did a colour balance and slight unsharp mask.

Did I go too far?


http://i638.photobucket.com/albums/uu109/Lester_045/AstroLagoon15x2minDSS3rdfinal.jpg

[Moon]

Not for me, but hey it's subjective! I like this one the best.

[desler]

Not for me lester, that Titan must really be doing it's job!
Well done.


Darren

[Lester]

Thanks for your comments, James and Darren.

All the best.

[Hagar]

Hi Lester, Nice first one. You could probably do a few minor tweaks which will improve the image quite a bit.
1. Adjust the levels slider until the histogram is close to the left side.
2. Increase the contrast slider a little.
3. Increase the Saturation slider in Adjustment, Hue and saturation.
4. small adjustment in Shadows and highlights.

Hope this helps a little.

[Lester]

Thanks Doug for your tips, I will try them in the morning.

All the best.

[Octane]

Lester,

Great effort for coming back from such a long break (I know all about them!).

Looking forward to seeing what you can do with your gear once you've got autoguiding going.

Just a word of advice -- stay away from ISO-1600. Go back to ISO-400. You'll be well pleased with the results.

Regards,
Humayun

[Lester]

Thanks for the comments/tips Humayun. When I get auto guiding working I will try lower ISO. JUst that the weather has been against me for many months to even get a handle on auto tracking. Have only been able to get a few hous at the most before cloud comes.

[mill]

Aha finally imaging again Lester :)
Looks very good to me and dont stop imaging now :P

[Lester]

Thanks Martin; seems like it has taken forever, but there has been a lot of progress and changes that have taken place in the past 22 months.

All the best.

[strongmanmike]

Yeh that's bluddy good Lester, nicely processed, bit small image though but enough to tell it's a keeper :thumbsup:

Mike

[RB]

Lester the links aren't working atm.

:shrug:

[Lester]

Hi Mike, I appreciate your comments, thanks.

Hi Andrew, the first image I deleted in photobucket, but the other images are still there.

[spearo]

Greta shot,
As Doug said a few tweaks and it'll pop right out
cheers
frank

[RB]

Ah ok, I got the third link working.
Nice work Lester, I also would echo what Doug and Frank said, just adjust the contrast and saturation a bit and it will jump out at yah.

Looking forward to more mate.

:thumbsup:

[Lester]

Hi Frank and Andrew. The last image I have put up in photobucket has been tweeked with Doug's recipe to the best of my skills. Didn't want to over tweek it.