Lagoon Nebula M8

[chuckywiz (Ben)]

Has been soo long since ive had a chance to get out in the field but finally. I also had a chance to try to collimate my badly out of whack 10 inch Newt.

Sooo.. Lagoon Nebula
10 Inch Newt
Neq6Pro
Nikon D3200
Iso 3200
40 x 1 Min Exposures
Guided with Orion Awesome Autoguider.
Processed in DSS then Photoshop.

Ben

[Robert9 (Robert)]

Hi Ben,
I do so envy you getting out. Melbourne weather for the past month or so has been !@#$%^&*( !!! Currently about 6C, overcast and raining as is forecast for the rest of the week when there is no moon too. Think I should take up tiddly winks.
Great shot of the lagoon but I fancy there is a lot of noise in the picture spoiling the resolution somewhat. Note that you had your Nikon at ISO 3200 which wouldn't help. Did you have high ISO NR turned on, which takes another dark frame picture immediately after your exposure and subtracts it. I would suggest you come down to 400 or even 200 ISO and take longer exposures, especially since you are guiding. In this situation you would have high ISO NR off and take dark frames - same number as lights at same ISO and process image with them.
Robert

[chuckywiz (Ben)]

I took a few longer exposures at lower iso but the stars ended up all bloated. I suspect my collimations out or focusing or both. So i ended up with the high iso low exposure to try to combat it. Normally with my ed80 i find iso 400 and 3-5 mins exposure a good compromise. Its been over a year since ive used the newt so thought id give it a bash. Ill take some darks later and see if any improvement.

[Robert9 (Robert)]

OK Ben. Your 3-5 minute exposures matches my own experience with my ED100 (love it) and Nikon D90. I'm sure you find the darks help a lot.
Robert

PS. Try the darks with your pendant too.

[Tony_ (Tony)]

Hello Ben,

The image/data isn't too bad. It just needs better processing (I have attached a quick go that I had). The red and the blue was a bit out of balance + a bit of noise reduction.
I usually take my darks at the end of the session when I am packing up everything. The darks should be taken at the same temperature as the lights.

Tony.

[chuckywiz (Ben)]

im not sure if ive quite still got the hang of this. i took some darks with my camera in a freezer.. so pretty close to the 2 degrees from last night. Processed through DSS and the picture came out worse....

[Somnium (Aidan)]

Darks will only really help to eliminate any hot pixels that are systemic with the camera. Flats are probably a little more important, but the data looks good, keep it up.

Originally Posted by chuckywiz

im not sure if ive quite still got the hang of this. i took some darks with my camera in a freezer.. so pretty close to the 2 degrees from last night. Processed through DSS and the picture came out worse....

[raymo]

I don't know how long your camera was in the freezer Ben, but domestic
freezers sit around -18 degs, which obviously is a long way from 2 degs.
raymo