Lagoon and Trifid Nebula ​

This is a 1.5 hour exposure of the Lagoon, and Trifid Nebula. You can also see Saturn as the very bright looking star to the left. The Lagoon Nebula, the big one, is 4077 light years away, and the Trifid Nebula is 5200 light years away. ​The Lagoon Nebula is much bigger at about 100 light years in diameter, and since it's so bright, it can be easily seen with binoculars. The central area is very bright, and full of star formation. The Trifid Nebula is 42 light years in diameter, and it's fairly unique. The nebula is both blue and red. The red part is the emission nebula, and the blue part is a reflection nebula caused by the bright stars lighting up the dust next to the nebula. 

Final Image

Lagoon and Trifid Nebula Portrait

Starless Image of the Region

Details of How the shot was Taken
​
Gear:

• Olympus OMD EM-5 Micro 4/3 camera 
• Skywatcher Star Adventurer (Unguided)
• Olympus 40-150mm F2.8 lens
• Home made dew heater
  • Made with nichrome wire wrapped in duct tape, which is powdered by a lipo battery 

​Acquisition & Environment:

• 85x1 minute exposures (1.4 hours)
• 1600 iso @ 150mm (300 equivalent) F2.8
• 60 Flat Frames
• 60 Dark Frames
• 50 Bias Frames
• Taken: August 11, 2018

Processing:

• Images processed in DeepSkyStacker
  • 2x Drizzle Stack
  • Brought Saturation to 17 and match all rgb levels
• Photoshop Adjustments:
  • Cropped to remove stacking errors and center the cluster in the frame
  • Adjust Levels to bring Histogram to the front and bring out more nebulosity
  • Used RC-Astro's Gradient xterminator to remove the gradient the flats couldn't fix
  • Adjust Colour balance to adjust background colour to be neutral
  • Used Deep Sky Colours HLVG tool to remove any unnecessary greens in the photo
  • Used Astronomy tools to bring out local contrast and make stars smaller
    • Enhance DSO and Reduce Stars tool was used
  • Increased the Saturation 
  • Exported into jpeg

The Raw Image From the Camera