M8 Lagoon

[Paul Haese]

Had some nice conditions on two nights over the weekend but last night was the best. I have finally given myself leave to image with the Takahashi again after producing quite a few images with the RC8. The sky was nice and clear and as it progressed the seeing conditions got better and better. Pity I did not have my C14 on me.

I think the colouring is ok but I want my orange stars to be more orange.

Click here (http://paulhaese.net/M8Lagoon.html)for image.

Your comments and thoughts are more than welcome.

[TrevorW]

Thats a top shot Paul plenty of detail and soft tones

[h0ughy]

lovely deep shot Paul, I know you can increase the colour intensity in pixinsight only for the orange stars, so surely photoshop can do it

[jjjnettie]

Soooo smooooth.

[batema]

Yep, an amazing image. So clear and sharp. What was the Takahashi is this from?

Mark

[DavidU]

Smooth as a ......
well very smooth indeed Paul.

[Octane]

Paul,

I reckon some contrast limited just to the nebula will help it pop some more.

Otherwise, splendid!

H

[Hagar]

Very nice Paul, Rich colour and detail. The refractor certainly has some punch on a target such as this. Just wondering about the halo's on the stars, is it an artifact from the Ha blend or a minor reflection?

[Bassnut]

Whoa, each M8 lately just gets better, excellent effort Paul, exceptional.

[Paul Haese]

Thanks all, will take everything on board.

Mark. This is a Tak TSA 102. You can find the details under the image.

H, I will take a look at this. Making this pop is certainly what I am trying to achieve.

Doug, I am think this is a reflection. Like you said minor. Most likely off the filters from the imaging window. Both are very close to each other. I don't really think it is much of a problem, maybe just a little cosmetic.

Thanks Fred, yes I took a look around before posting and found quite a few lagoon's on display at present.

[gregbradley]

Top notch Paul. Only minor improvement would be those few halos around the brighter stars. Is that from deconvolution?

Greg.

[Paul Haese]

No decon Greg. Just coming out with the processing. :)

[multiweb]

Love the details and star colours. Not too keen on the overall pink salmon look though, probably accentuated by the Ha blend but that's personal taste. Top shot nonetheless. :thumbsup:

[richardo]

This is a nice image Paul.
I like the fov you are getting with this configuration.
M8 is a perfect fit.

Rich

[Tom Davis]

Lovely shot Paul! Nice framing and detail!

Tom

[CoolhandJo]

Paul, the framing is excellent. Do you use Maxim DL? that is, do you get a live view and slew around in realtime to frame? Or do you have to take a series of exposures to frame? Whatever yo udo it working? The detail is noece - not too soft and not too sharp. I like ti a bit more red but thats a personal taste. Top work as usual!

[tornado33]

Exellent flat field and good processing too!

[marc4darkskies]

Really nice Paul! :thumbsup: Quite deep! I agree with H & Marc though - it needs some contrast enhancement (use real unsharp masking) and you need to restore the reds after your Ha blend.

Cheers, Marcus

[Paul Haese]

Thanks guys for the comments.

Marc and Marcus, I am not sure why the pink came out this way. I only used the Ha as my lum layer. I suspect it is more to do with the lack of signal in the other layers. Some more signal and more fine processing should take care of the hue.

Paul I use maxim for capture only. My version of maxim does not have live view so I need to take a series of short 15 second 3x3 binned images to frame the object.

[CoolhandJo]

Wow - even more impressive! Why is it that Maxim dosent have a basic function such as live view? Have you considered switching your image capture software to one that does?

[rogerg]

Very nice image. The pink is a little unusual :) but looks great still. Such smooth nebulosity and sharp round stars.

[Paul Haese]

Ok taken a few things on board and did tried them out and here is the image as version number 8. Not sure about it myself. It remains smooth but looks over cooked to me. Opinions would be welcome. There is more detail now but is that at a price?

[TrevorW]

prefer the first this has a greenish tinge in the stars IMO and not as smooth as the first

[Paul Haese]

You are right Trevor, that is disasterous. I think this image is better. I am thinking it is my final process with this data at present. It is contrasty, has better yellow stars and less pink and salmon. What do you all think?

[CoolhandJo]

Like the first one

[Peter Ward]

Paul....I really like this rendition.

I tend to think the outer extremes of M8 are more red, and the inner, more magenta (due H-Beta) but this is neither here nor there.

With M8 it's often a case of dealer's choice, but the fact of the matter is, you have nailed the focus, guiding and colour extremely well. A top shelf result for sure! The world doesn't need more fuzzy M8's :)

Well done :thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

Yep that is pretty close to spot on. There is a transition of magenta at the edges of the neb. On a really long exposure of the Lagoon you'll see a blue haze around its perimeter. Its a band of reflection nebula and it is blue like the Trifid only very hazy and very dim. The magenta is showing there is some blue there but is skewed to the red.

Perhaps selective colour and blues/magentas can be played with to shift that shade there.

Greg.

[Paul Haese]

Thanks Peter, much appreciated.

Greg, I don't know if you can see it on my image but the blue is sort of present. I might try doing a lot more subs in the blue channel and maybe some more in the Ha. Just to really bring out the blue and smooth out the tiny bit of noise in this image. I looked at Wolfgang Promper's image of this target and the reflection blue is really quite evident.

[strongmanmike]

Nice job Paul, a striking image, again, with a bit of that solid plastic look (not really a critisism)

If I may give you a bit of feedback though... your processing here is juuuust verging on having an obvious processed look to it. This isn't always a issue and many fine images are not of "natural" look or colour but the colour hues here look just a bit out to me so as not to render it as eye pleasing as it could be... with the reds looking a little burnt orangy purpleish..y :question:, the colours kind of clash and don't go...in a fashion sense :P . It looks just a bit clipped in the outer regions too? As has been mentioned M8 has a lovely soft blue hazzy nebulousity surrounding and in front of it too and this looks beautiful when captured.

Hope I don't sound picky or waffly...The lagoon is a striking object and you have certainly done this aspect plenty of justice...I am sure Marc just loves it :thumbsup:..but hopefully these observations are of some use :)

Mike

[Lester]

Looks very nice to me Paul.

[Paul Haese]

Mike I can see where you are coming from. When I view the image on the screen I have I can see the blue and yes there is an orangy thing going on that I just cannot seem to shake. This might work out better when I get the final lot of data in the coming month. During the reprocess I will keep an eye out for the native things about this image that attract everyones eye. ;)

Thanks Lester.

[Dean]

nice work

[TheDecepticon]

Good job, Paul! I like them all!!:eyepop: