Lagoon Nebula M8 in Sagittarius
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Scope: Megrez II  f/4.2, Location: Blair Valley, Anza Borrego Desert, CA,   3 June 2005  Camera: Artemis285

Exposure: 7 x 90 sec Luminance exposures (1x1) with IR block, 5 x 240 sec H-Alpha Exposure (1x1) 6 x 60 sec RGB exposures (2x2).

Processing: Images were captured Artemis Capture (as FITs). Aligned/stacked in Registax 3 and saved as FITS. Luminance, H-Alpha,  and Color channels were scaled and rough color balanced in Astroart. Channels were co-registered in Astroart. The H-Alpha exposure was the main exposure for the luminance construction - the IR block exposure was combined with the H-Alpha for star depth with the fainter stars.  Final LRGB combine was done in Photoshop using Luminance Layering (or LLRGB).  Color balancing and final touches were done in Photoshop.   Final Image size is approximately 1392x1040.

North is up in this image. The image was guided for all exposures. M8 is a nebular region about 5,200 light years form Earth. The young cluster of stars within the nebula just to the left of the bright central area is NGC 6530. There are several dark globules that can be seen in the image. These are collapsing protostellar clouds that my ultimately acquire enough density to ignite into stars. This image replaces an earlier image that can be seen in the Archives here.  Horizontal FOV is 90'

Image center is approximately - Equatorial 2000: RA: 18h 03m 54s Dec: -24°21'39"

 

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All images and content remain the property of Jim Thommes - copyright 2003, 2010

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