Lagoon and Trifid Nebulas

[JimFox]

I captured this last week out at Bonneville Salt Flats. An amazing dark sky location.

Lagoon and the Trifid area is a rich area in the night sky. With this image I removed the stars in it (which I haven't done in a while) and I liked the way it rendered the surrounding Milky Way with a soft painterly feel. I didn't intend for it to do that, but I liked the result.

SkyGuider Pro - Tracking
Nikon D850 - Not modified
Tamron 150-600mm @ 500mm
60 - Lights @ ISO 800, f6.3, 60 seconds
5 - Darks

Stacked in DSS
Processed in Photoshop

All comments are welcome,

Jim

PS. Because it was so hot out there, I limited the shutter speed to 60 seconds with the intention of preventing sensor noise from the heat

 

[AlanLichty]

I like the result - I feel like I get a better view of the subjects without all of the stars in the frame.

 

[JimFox]

I like the result - I feel like I get a better view of the subjects without all of the stars in the frame.

Thanks Alan.

I totally agree with you about the lack of stars giving a better view of the DSO. But sometimes I like them with just some stars to kind of give a feeling of space too. When it's bad for me is when the stars overwhelm the image. It's a balancing act, and from I have seen from long time Astrophotographers, there is no consensus on the right approach. For me, I think I kind of do it different ways to get different looks.

 

[Jameel Hyder]

I like the colors and detail in the DSO.

I don't know - removing the stars is like manipulating the landscape removing objects you don't like. Removing things like some stray object is fine. However an astro image w/o any stars look unreal. I know this can get contentious in a hurry.

 

[jarmor]

Looks great, Jim! Nice colors and details. I do like starless images as they show the nebulosity a lot better. But then in the end I usually put some stars there so it looks more like a real space image. It is always a matter of taste. For me it works well here as the nebulosity looks good.

There is one more interesting subject NGC 6559 to the left of Lagoon Nebula. It may be too dim to pull it out but it complements nicely the other two.

I have a bit of a similar camera setup. For a long time I have thought of getting a tracker. This makes me consider it even more as it seems to work really well for astro images.

 

[chuckp]

Hey Jim, Nice capture, very nice colors. I don't get a chance to see the Milky Way very often so I like the stars in the shot.

 

[Ben Egbert]

I like this Jim, and I like the star removal, from a viewing experience aspect, but some of the arguments above for including them are true as well. I think its the makers decision.

 

[JimFox]

I like the colors and detail in the DSO.

I don't know - removing the stars is like manipulating the landscape removing objects you don't like. Removing things like some stray object is fine. However an astro image w/o any stars look unreal. I know this can get contentious in a hurry.

Thanks Jameel, I am glad you liked the details.

I have only been doing Deep Space Astro for 1.5 years, but I saw early on that removing stars is both liked and disliked. So if you don’t like them removed, that’s okay.

 

[JimFox]

Looks great, Jim! Nice colors and details. I do like starless images as they show the nebulosity a lot better. But then in the end I usually put some stars there so it looks more like a real space image. It is always a matter of taste. For me it works well here as the nebulosity looks good.

There is one more interesting subject NGC 6559 to the left of Lagoon Nebula. It may be too dim to pull it out but it complements nicely the other two.

I have a bit of a similar camera setup. For a long time I have thought of getting a tracker. This makes me consider it even more as it seems to work really well for astro images.

Thanks so much Jarmo!

Yeah, I have done that too where I put some stars back in. Once in a while I will remove the stars, but I do always perform star reduction to reduce their impact on an image.

There is something to the left, I couldn’t figure out what it is. There also is a very small object to the lower left of Lagoon that I don’t know what it is.

The SkyGuider Pro is a great way to get started with tracking. It works really well and gets you used to aligning and balancing. It’s less then $500 for a complete setup. I liked it that I could spend such a small amount to get started in Astro since I could still use my DSLR and Lenses.

 

[jarmor]

There is something to the left, I couldn’t figure out what it is. There also is a very small object to the lower left of Lagoon that I don’t know what it is.

Sorry, my mistake, I think NGC 6559 is almost out of the picture now that I look at it again.

SkyGuider Pro is definitely on my list. Only two and a half months for the dark skies to return here up north...

 

[Gramps Potter]

I captured this last week out at Bonneville Salt Flats. An amazing dark sky location.

Lagoon and the Trifid area is a rich area in the night sky. With this image I removed the stars in it (which I haven't done in a while) and I liked the way it rendered the surrounding Milky Way with a soft painterly feel. I didn't intend for it to do that, but I liked the result.

SkyGuider Pro - Tracking
Nikon D850 - Not modified
Tamron 150-600mm @ 500mm
60 - Lights @ ISO 800, f6.3, 60 seconds
5 - Darks

Stacked in DSS
Processed in Photoshop

All comments are welcome,

Jim

PS. Because it was so hot out there, I limited the shutter speed to 60 seconds with the intention of preventing sensor noise from the heat

View attachment 40195

Great job, really nice colors !

 

[JimFox]

Hey Jim, Nice capture, very nice colors. I don't get a chance to see the Milky Way very often so I like the stars in the shot.

Thank you Chuck. I will post a version with stars amd Milky Way In a few days.

 

[Mike Lewis]

Really nice result, I think the colors are pretty spot on in this version from what I have seen elsewhere.

ML