Sagitarius excercise in light polluted skies

[luigi]

Hi All,

I did this excercise with two goals:
1) Practice my Post-processing
2) Try to see what can you get from terrible light polluted skies

I live in Buenos Aires, one of the most light-polluted cities in the world, from the middle of the city I took 30 light frames, 15 dark frames with a fixed tripod, Canon 5DII and a 90mm F2.8 lens, ISO3200, 6 second exposures.

I tried to see If I could get the lagoon nebula but it's not visible even with binoculars so I tried to "guess" where it would be.

I processed the stacks with DSS then removed the background and stretched the histogram with IRIS, final touches in Photoshop.

I realize the exposure time was too long as the stars are a little oblong to my taste. Yet there it is! at the bottom of the frame the Lagoon Nebula is visible. M7 rules the frame at the top :). Do you see other interesting objects?

Larger versions here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lrargerich/4784705016/

I apreciate any feedback you can give me!
Luis

[SkyViking]

I would say that's a fine result from the middle of BA Luis! I was there in 2008 and I remember thinking it must be very challenging to be an amateur astronomer there!
Do you have a dark site you can go to outside the city?

[luigi]

Thank you! Yes I do have a dark place, an observatory 100km away with very friendly people. I go there when I can make the trip and the weather is fine. I practice some clear weekdays from my backyard to test different Post-processing Ideas.