M 8: The Lagoon Nebula "Pulling Away"

Comment

Comment by Trevor Woodrow on May 29, 2011 at 11:39am

Ugh, scale is off in the embedded version...click on it...let it load and let it shrink down to smaller size. Looks a bit better. Again, not perfect, but I think with a few more tweaks could work.

t

Comment by Trevor Woodrow on May 29, 2011 at 11:36am

Thanks Mark for the comment, the compliment....AND the inspiration....wounded to the core (note the drama) about my feild curvature...went back to photoshop. Took the offending portions of the pic...cut them out...then under Filter, Distort, Lens Correction, Remove distortion...moved the slider to 30%...that rounded most of the stars, I then layered the portions back in. Not perfect, but as long as you don't zoom it, takes away most of the obvious issues! See the attached. Just a "rough draft" as I played with it over coffee. If you zoom in you will see plenty issues, but like I said if you do not, not bad.
Mark is right, I am hoping to make a Mosaic, which should hopefully overlap enough to deal with the issue in the final, but in the meanwhile, for these smaller bits, I think I can refine this process enough to make it work.

Thanks for the inspiration Mark!
t

Comment by Mark Roberts on May 29, 2011 at 11:06am

I hear you man, go with what's working. Glad to hear you are getting clear skies, wish it was me. Once again great job!

Comment by Trevor Woodrow on May 29, 2011 at 10:03am

Thanks for your comments!

Charlie, believe it or not, the color was one of the hard parts of this image. Came out very red....the nebula, the stars, the background, and I wasn't sure what was going on. If I adjusted one the other suffered. To remedy, I made several color variations and averaged them to produce the above.

Thanks Steve!

Mark, yeah, saw that too...saddly not using any flattener, but I know I should ecspecially when using the smaller refractor. May have to invest in one. As for the MPCC, I have not really played with it since. Haven't had clear skies in like forever. Since I am now finally getting some nice skies I did not want to waste them testing the MPCC. Next full moon, of after I get my fill of the Spring/Summer nebulas I am planning on trying it again with the 8" and the my unmod'd DSLR see what I can do.

Thanks again for taking the time to comment.

t

Comment by Mark Roberts on May 29, 2011 at 6:29am

Very nice Trevor...however, even though I love the wide field I think I might crop it a bit as the stars look a bit streeetched in the outer third of the frame. What flatener are you using.
Have you had any better luck with the MPCC since we last talked?

Comment by Steve Coates on May 29, 2011 at 4:54am

Nicely done. The colors are not overpowering and your stars are nicely resolved to the center. Yup...its a wall hanger!

Comment by Charles Dunlop on May 28, 2011 at 9:24pm

I like this shot, it's got nice coloration.

Comment by Trevor Woodrow on May 28, 2011 at 8:20pm

Thanks Marc, wife was not as impressed with this one, but I am with you, I like the wide field. Have you ever tried printing? Is there some trick to it? Had one done before and turned out not so good.

Mark, you read my mind. M20 is next!

Comment by Marc Basti on May 28, 2011 at 2:49pm

That is one nice pic man. Processing is sweet in all three, but the widefield perspective wins me over every time. Marc PS do you have your wife clearing a wall space for the new pic yet.

Comment by Trevor Woodrow on May 28, 2011 at 2:07pm

And only got rained on once that night!

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