M8 - The Lagoon Nebula (DSLR)

An emission nebula with cluster in Sagittarius, shot with a Skywatcher 120 EDT at the Texas Star Party.

Location: Texas Star Party 2014, Prude Ranch, Davis Mountains, Texas

Temperature: 62 degrees F

Equipment: 5" Skywatcher 120 EDT on a Software Bisque Paramount ME

Camera: Canon 60Da DSLR

Exposure Info: 8 x 5 minutes (40 minutes total)

Processing Information: Acquisition in BackyardEOS. Calibration, Registration, and non-linear noise reduction and stretching in PixInsight. Color balance, levels/curves, sharpening, star repair, and cropping in Photoshop CS6. Color Blotch Reduction, Deep Space Noise Removal, and Local Contrast Enhancement in Photoshop via Noel Carboni's Astronomy Tools Actions for Photoshop.

About this Image

I am privileged that Skywatcher USA is wanting me to do some imaging through their refractors. This 5" refractor is a nice sized scope, and just like its 6" big brother, which I have imaged with here, is a great performer at any price. Do not try to judge optical performance by the quality of the image, however. I'm not a fan of DSLRs for such things, and the 14-bit performance of the Canon 60Da makes it very difficult to image the stars well. Therefore, a lot of post-processing goes into star repair, at least in order to make for a good image. Even so, for 40 minutes of total exposure, it's a nice result.

As for the object itself, many exposures of the Lagoon, or any emission source for that matter, do a poor job of showing the reflections of the hot, young, blue stars in the cluster. This image consciously tries to preserve that; so, if there is more blue than you have seen - or a wider color palette - then now you know the reason.

🤖 AI-drafted · unverified

What it is: M8, the Lagoon Nebula, is a large emission nebula and stellar nursery.
Constellation: Sagittarius
Distance: ~4,100 light-years
Apparent magnitude: ~6.0
Angular size: ~90 × 40 arcminutes
Coordinates: RA 18h 03m 37s, Dec -24° 23′

This summary was generated by an AI assistant from general astronomical references, not from Jay's own notes on this specific image. Treat every detail above as a starting point for research, not settled fact.