Yep another M20 and M8

[leon]

Hi Guys.

Totally unsure of what to Image last night the 20th because i planned to many targets, again, I ended up having a go at the Lagoon and Trifid as a wide field to see if I could improve on my last effort, I think there is some improvement, please comment, all comments taken on board.

35 Images @32 Sec's each, at 800 ISO unguided, using Tak 106 and Canon 5D on G11. In camera darks, no flates, processed in Image Plus, and touched up in PS2. (Temp was 0 degrees at 1am, no software focusing.)

Leon

[h0ughy (David)]

wow thats nice, gee that Tak and the 5d are a winner

[jase (Jason)]

Hi Leon,
I certainly enjoy the composition of the two objects in the frame. If done carefully you can also frame IC1275, IC4685, IC1274 and NGC6559 together with M8 and M20, using the FSQ.

By the looks of things you're black clipping the data (see histogram attachment). You may need to stretch your data further. Don't set the white point too low to start with otherwise you'll white clip as you perform the non-linear stretch (curves, DDP or shadow/highlights) on the data.

The histogram in the attachment is marked from level 0 to 255. level 0 is far left (black) and level 255 (white) far right. The goal is to see the black point (level 0) to start (or close to) zero and rise from there. As you can see from the attachment the left of the histogram of your image. Level 1 has 44187, not zero or around this value. Thus you are loosing too much information, hence the reason why the background sky looks unnaturally dark for this rich star field region.

This is trial and error mate. Have a play around to get a feel for what the histogram tells you. Once you understand the histogram, you'll be able to extract the maximum information from your data. I use the histogram reading regularly for different tasks. Its an excellent too for simply evaluating the quality of the data you've captured. There are plenty of links on the net explaining its function. I feel certain others on this forum can also lend a hand.

[Ric]

A great looking widefield Leon, you certainly captured a lot of lovely sights to see in that one.

Cheers

[gbeal]

Nice shot Leon, very nice. You can't go longer than 32 secs? Have you tried longer, even unguided? Maybe try it.
Like Jase said, it is a toss with the processing as well.
The trick is to look back at what you produced last year and you will see that the difference is huge, well done.

[Garyh]

Nice one Leon...very sharp and nice colors..
just like what Jase mentions, that you have lost some of your darker data there..other than that shes a nice one..
well done!

[leon]

Thank You for your kind comments, once i get this processing on track things should improve.

Leon

[Dr Nick (Nick)]

Not just another M20 and M8, but a great M20 and M8!!!

Well done!

[acropolite (Phil)]

Delightful image Leon