M8 - The Lagoon Nebula with Trifid
Description: M8, The Lagoon Nebula, in the constellation of Sagittarius. This image was taken on July 22, 2009 from Table Mountain Star Party in Washington state.
This is my favorite shot of the star party. The Lagoon Nebula is prominent in the bottom of the image, with M20, The Trifid Nebula at the top center. There is lots of Milky Way visible in the background.
Equipment: The image was taken with an 8" Celestron C8 telescope on a Celestron CGE mount with a Hyperstar 3 lens. The camera was a QHY8PRO. The exposures were guided with Astro-Tech AT66ED refractor and Meade DSI Pro piggyback mounted on the C8, using PHD guiding software. Focus was done automatically with FocusMax and a MicroTouch focus motor on a FeatherTouch SCT focuser.
Exposures: 30x120 seconds binned 1x1.
Processing: Image capture was done with Maxim/DL 5. Calibration, registration, noise reduction and stacking were done in CCDStack. Curves, levels and zone processing were done in Photoshop CS2. Gradient processing was done with GradientXTerminator.
Click on image for full resolution.