M8 Lagoon

[Darren_R (Darren)]

Recently the sky forecast on ClearOutside was really crap, "red" all night long. Turned out they got it wrong, really wrong. I decided just before heading to bed a little early due to night-shift (12 hr night shifts previous 4 nights) related tiredness to take a peak outside at the sky. It was TOTALLY clear. Hmmm, I can't let this go without doing some astroimaging, so opened up the observatory. powered up and 12 min after walking out the door was shooting an AutoRun with ASIair. The sky stayed almost clear all night long, and this is part of the result ....



EQUIPMENT:


Mount: Sky-Watcher AZ-EQ6 Pro

Telescopes: Sky-Watcher ESPRIT 120ED with 120 Field Corrector (main), Sky-Watcher EVOSTAR 72ED (guide)

Cameras: ZWO ASI1600MM Pro, ZWO ASI120MM-S

Focusing: ZWO EAF

Filtering: ZWO 36mm 7 position EFW with ZWO LRGB, Ha, Oii and Siii filters.

Dew Control: Kendrick Dewminator with Kendrick Dew Straps on each scope.

Computers: ZWO ASIAir Plus, MacBook Pro M2 (2023).

Location: Australia (NSW Central Coast), roughly 33.4S 151.3E.




IMAGING DATA:


R 54 x 60s
G 57 x 60s
B 57 x 60s
T -10C
Gain 139
Dithered 5/2




PROCESSING:


PixInsight 1.9.3, Adobe Photoshop 2025

[astronobob (Bob)]

Thats is a rather rich bleeding lagoon there Darren, Decent result and some nice sharp details, maybe a tad dark background for realistic purposes, the milky way is quite bright in the area.
Great Star Colours, good composition, Nice job and well done

[AstroJason (Jason)]

Always hard to let a nice, clear night go! Even when you're tired. That's the great thing with the ASIair, quick set up and then off to bed. Nice result Darren, lovely rich red colour and you didn't over expose the core which is sometimes easy to do.

[Darren_R (Darren)]

Thanks! Appreciate the feedback. Agree on the background for realism, but I tend to like the nebula etc to be more vibrant / punchy and find that making the BG darker works to that end. I do have a version that is more realistic.

[Darren_R (Darren)]

Originally Posted by AstroJason

Always hard to let a nice, clear night go! Even when you're tired. That's the great thing with the ASIair, quick set up and then off to bed. Nice result Darren, lovely rich red colour and you didn't over expose the core which is sometimes easy to do.

I work on average ½ of all nights (3 one week, 4 the next week, alternating) so I automatically historically have lost 50% of potential time. That said, with my obs now fully functional, and having carefully monitored multiple sessions, particularly meridian flips, I've got high degree of confidence and I'm starting to be tempted to let it run all night when I'm at work ... provided all the weather apps tell me at least no rain, and preferably full clear night. Thnx for colour / core type feedback