Taking a dip in the Lagoon

[marc4darkskies]

I think I'm the only person on IIS never to have imaged M8! :) ... until now!

I went pretty deep with 4.5 hours of Ha (30 min subs) - see below. There was a LOT of Ha but I decided to tone it down juuuust a tad to keep the final looking reasonably natural.

Hope you like it.

Full resolution (use <cntrl -> to zoom out)
http://www.pbase.com/gailmarc/image/144825967/original

Cheers, Marcus

[RickS]

A lovely Lagoon, Marcus! Great detail on the nebulosity and I really like the star colours.

Cheers,
Rick.

[multiweb]

Awesome data and processing - just right. Love it. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[cometcatcher]

How could you not have imaged M8 before? You sure made up for it in that image.

I've imaged M8 lots of times but I'm pretty sure I will never get a shot as good as that.

[Stevec35]

Rather surprising that you've never imaged it before Marcus. To say the least you have done a pretty good job with your first attempt.

Cheers

Steve

[marc4darkskies]

Glad you liked it Rich! Star colours can make or break an image and I think I've got them pretty right here. ... though they never quiiiite appear perfect to me :sadeyes:



Hey thanks a lot Marc! It took a bit of fiddling to blend the Ha into the final in a balanced way - glad you liked it! :)



Cheers Kevin! I've just never gotten around to it I guess :shrug:



Thankyou very much Steve!

[SkyViking]

Thats a very pleasing and impressive Lagoon, I really like the colours showing off all the different hues that this nebula actually have. Great work!

[gregbradley]

That's a classy Lagoon Marcus.

I like it.

Greg.

[RobF]

Exactly at the standard we expect from you and your great gear, handled with precision and processed with taste, as usual Marcus!
Stunning lagoon. A reference image as far as I'm concerned, up there with the best.

(Did I mention I like it BTW :D)

[strongmanmike]

Hmmmm, quite nice, just needs a tad more Ha and some more magenta-pinks I recon ;) just so subjective :lol:

Lovely job Marcus, nice composition and Welcome to the M8 club :thumbsup:

Mike

[marc4darkskies]

Cheers Rolf! It's always a bit of a struggle to recover a good colour balance when you're blending Ha. I try to keep the hues as faithful as possible to the RGB version of the image.



Cheers Greg!



Thanks very much Rob - you're too kind!



Hehe, cheers Mike! Subjective? Nah! ... pure science mate! :D

[strongmanmike]

Sciarse maybe :lol:

[Octane]

Gosh, there's so much depth in that image. Floored, really.

H

[alpal]

That's a beautiful image Marcus.
Thanks for sharing.

[Rigel003]

Lovely rendition Marcus. Well done.

[Paul Haese]

Nice iamge Marcus. Every thing you could always want. :thumbsup:

[Ross G]

A great photo Marcus.

There is an aamzing amount of detail.

Ross.

[marc4darkskies]

Thanks a lot Humi! Glad you liked it! 30 min Ha subs always do the trick! :)



Cheers Alpal!



Thanks Graeme!



Thanks Paul.



Cheers Ross. Though very often imaged, it's rarely seen at full res so it was nice to see detail I hadn't seen before!

[Peter Ward]

M8? Lagoon?? Never heard of them! :whistle:

Nicely handled version of such a rarely imaged...but very pretty... object Marcus :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Hi Marcus, me again :hi:

Firstly, I was looking at your Lagoon Last night on my wifes Ipad, and while it looked good it's not the same as on a proper screen, so home now and looking at it properly and it is a lovely piece of work mate, well done :thumbsup:

I did pull your Lagoon and my Swan into Photoshop and look at them both side by side (at 33%) to get a nice overall assessment of the colour schemes on the same monitor...and although they are different sized objects, I have to say, apart from my extra satuation our basic colour palettes aren't really that much different, you even have some nice pinks going on in there :thumbsup: ...so I don't get the hull abloo about my Swan colours, me confused :shrug: :nerd: :lol:

Anyway, love your M-ate...maybe not as much as Marc Aragnou though :lol:

Mike

[marc4darkskies]

Thanks Peter! You should try and image it one day too :lol:



Thanks mate! I think the two objects are different colours though - aren't they? I haven't shot the Swan yet so I don't know. I wouldn't stress too much though - you did good! :)

[strongmanmike]

Are they...? ;)...see? It all depends on your eye and feel, you can't tell me you used any sort of genuine colour calibration to decide on your M8 colours, can you..? :question: and if you did, calibrated to what? Convention? Hmmm, this is more like interior decorating I recon :lol:




Fankyou :P :love:

Mike

[marc4darkskies]

Can too!! :D I didn't "choose" the colour of M8. I always process an RGB only image so the stars are close to G2V calibrated. To do that I look for stars in the field that are near to that spectral type either in TheSky, by looking for white stars in other images of the same area by well known imagers, or by overall balancing of star colours using my eyeballs. I try not to look at the nebula when I'm doing this - just stars. If I do it right the neb comes up a gem. THEN you have to add Ha!! :sadeyes: The final result of the Ha blend won't look like the RGB but the palette shouldn't be tooooo far off.

[stevous67]

Nice job Marcus, you have a nice FOV, and colour scheme looks very pleasing to the eye.

Cheers

Steve

[marc4darkskies]

Thanks Steve! That's the native FOV of the TOA (F7.3). I should use it more often I think.

[Leonardo70]

Fantastic image .... at full size is wonderful.

All the best.
Leo

[strongmanmike]

It is huh Leo? :clap:

Ah sigh...Lagoooons...?..is that Marc Aragnou in there??? :eyepop:!

[marc4darkskies]

Hey thanks a lot Leo! I wish more folks (who shall remain nameless ;)) would post full res full frame images - it's really the only way to truely appreciate them IMO.


Oh dear! Marc, you dog! :lol: And you're a naughty boy Mike :rolleyes::lol:

[RobF]

Yep, gotta love that repro Mike :eyepop:
Umm, 2/3rds of it (sorry Marc)

[marco]

Excellent version Marcus, another fantastic image I see from you. I like the dramatic contribution of the Ha and the way you kept the core so contrasty without looking unnatural :thumbsup: An image to be proud of!
Clear skies
Marco

[marc4darkskies]

Many thanks Marco! I achieved what I set out to do then! I changed my processing workflow a bit for this one. Now, if I can just remember exactly what I did! ... :question: :lol: ;)

[multiweb]

:lol: Which star party was that? :question:

[David Fitz-Henr]

Now that my telescope making activities are complete, I can catch up on some of the imaging side of this hobby. Another great image Marcus. Not much I can add to all the other comments; great colour and detail as well as a natural look! I also agree with posting links to full res images so they can be viewed in all their glorious detail!