Lagoon and Trifid Nebulae
Messier 8 and 20, the Lagoon and Trifid, appear so low in the northern sky that it has been a challenge for me to image them from home, where trees impinge on my horizon. This was captured at a Westchester Amateur Astronomers' star party last week. The Lagoon is a large emission nebula formed principally from hydrogen gas; the smaller trifid is a more complex structure featuring an emission nebula (red), a reflection nebula (blue) and a dark nebula which carves the red structure into its three petaled shape. Both structures are estimated to lie some 4-6,000 light years from earth.
Tech Stuff: Borg 55FL astrograph/ZWO ASI 1600 MC/IDAS LPS-V4 filter. 24 minutes X 4 second unguided exposures captured in SharpCap livestacks with dark and flat frame correction. SQM-L readings 20.4 (Bortle 5). Processed with PixInsight, Topaz AI Denoise, ACDSee Gemstone 12.
Lagoon and Trifid Nebulae
Messier 8 and 20, the Lagoon and Trifid, appear so low in the northern sky that it has been a challenge for me to image them from home, where trees impinge on my horizon. This was captured at a Westchester Amateur Astronomers' star party last week. The Lagoon is a large emission nebula formed principally from hydrogen gas; the smaller trifid is a more complex structure featuring an emission nebula (red), a reflection nebula (blue) and a dark nebula which carves the red structure into its three petaled shape. Both structures are estimated to lie some 4-6,000 light years from earth.
Tech Stuff: Borg 55FL astrograph/ZWO ASI 1600 MC/IDAS LPS-V4 filter. 24 minutes X 4 second unguided exposures captured in SharpCap livestacks with dark and flat frame correction. SQM-L readings 20.4 (Bortle 5). Processed with PixInsight, Topaz AI Denoise, ACDSee Gemstone 12.