Lagoon Nebula

[lazjen (Chris)]

For whatever reasons tonight, I couldn't get my polar alignment right to take decent long exposures...

So before packing it in, I took 20 lights/darks of 5 sec exposure, ISO 25600 <- max for the 6D - just for kicks.

DSS and a bit of cleanup later:

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Nice one ! Better than my LP'd effort below.I must have a go with High ISO. You seem to have nailed the technique and processing required.

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

Amazing amount of detail for a whole 1 minute 40 seconds.

[Larryp (Laurie)]

Very good!

[lazjen (Chris)]

Thanks everyone. I must admit, it turned out better than what I expected at the time.

Originally Posted by ZeroID

Nice one ! Better than my LP'd effort below.I must have a go with High ISO. You seem to have nailed the technique and processing required.

The main reason I did it was to play around some more with the processing. I also suffer from a lot of LP in my backyard - it's about as bright as a full moon there thanks to the streetlight just outside the fence.

As for high ISO, it would depend on your camera. I prefer to keep the ISO down otherwise the stars bloat too quickly which makes it harder to process (for me anyway).

I'm also considering a LP filter and have been following some of the discussions on the forum recently.

Originally Posted by cometcatcher

Amazing amount of detail for a whole 1 minute 40 seconds.

Actually, I think DSS dropped 1 since I put it at 95%, so 1 minute 35 seconds.

Now that I've had some sleep, I've just had another look at the TIFF file (before and after processing) and the originals a bit more closely... Urgh. Focus was a bit whacked. :p

[Draco (Draco)]

Hi Chris.

Is this straight from the camera or did you put it through a telescope? Also, what lens did you have on?

Sorry for the newbie question

[lazjen (Chris)]

It's through the scope (RC10), as per my sig. I was using a 0.67 Focal Reducer as well.

[andyc (Andy)]

Chris, that's a stylish photo from short subs and high ISO - well done! The only clear giveaway is slight speckling on some of the smooth bits of nebula, but much less than I'd expect given the settings. Looks good indeed!